What’s HOT at Salt Lake City
By Woon Kin Seong
Arriving on a Saturday evening in June 2008 at Salt Lake City international airport, Utah, U.S.A. was quite a memorable experience as we watched the landscape of Utah from the plane. Salt Lake City sits at almost 3000 metres above sea level. The land had appeared light brownish red and the snow-capped mountains hinted at a cool temperature. And temperature was after all the mission of the trip. My colleague Chng Wee Kian and I were in Salt Lake City to attend a course on temperature metrology conducted by Hart Scientific, a division of Fluke Corporation. Hart is known worldwide in the temperature calibration area. This trip had been made possible by the collaboration between ITE College Central and one of its industrial partners, Fluke South East Asia Pte Ltd.
is used by lorries in excavation works. Each tyre costs US$25,000 then!
Having a day free on Sunday before the start of the five-day course, with the help of friends who resided there, we were quickly connected to the city’s attractions. State Capitol, Temple Square, the Bingham Copper Mine and the great Salt Lake were some attractions we visited.
The very next day we began our training. The training facility at Hart Scientific was located in the same building which also housed its manufacturing plant and laboratories. Each lesson was conducted by a metrologist who was an expert in his own area and we were exposed to a large range of equipment such as fixed point cells, temperature sources, sensors, bridges and readouts. Sharing the class with participants who came mostly from various states in USA, we found the lecturers friendly and very professional in their work. Lessons were very informative and useful. We also had the opportunity to tour the primary and secondary laboratories which had almost the same standard as the national laboratories. On the whole, we had quite a lot of fun interacting with fellow participants. One of the most surprising things we learnt was the legacy left behind by a retired and highly respected metrologist who had worked in Hart Scientific. He and his protégé, who are still at Hart today, came from China and had been metrologists before. This fact alone indicated, by and large, the mix of society in the US and the effects of globalisation. From the contacts we made in Hart, we are still in touch with them occasionally to seek their advice and answers to matters related to temperature metrology.
My colleague Wee Kian said: “After the trip to the course in metrology, we were amazed about the place and the people in UTAH. It is a beautiful place and people are passionate about the job. The metrologists, whom we have met in the seminar, spend their lifetime working in this specialized area. With our week-long training in UTAH, both of us will deliver the learning we obtained to the professionals in the Asia Pacific.”
Personally I never thought that temperature measurements could be that detailed and precise until I attended this course. What appeared so common turned out to be very complex in nature. When it comes to thermometry, many issues need thorough interpretation and the metrologists at Hart Scientific did precisely that.