2024

December 2024

The research committee of measurement uncertainty in testing laboratories was held at JATL on Nov. 28th. It has been held online for some time since the pandemic of COVID-19 but was held in person for the first time in almost five years and 13 members participated in this committee.

The committee has visited the company of measuring instruments or the calibrating laboratories of instruments before, however this time, the committee requested the Japanese Standards Association (JSA) group to give a lecture, and they dispatched the expert from the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). That lecture on measurement uncertainty was given in this research committee.

The lecture was with the title of “Basis and actual evaluation of measurement uncertainty” and was given for about three hours. The expert explained the basis of uncertainty, specific evaluation methods and budget sheets using for evaluating uncertainty. A lot of questions were asked in the Q&A session, and it was the very fulfilling lecture.

December 2024

In the cooperative project between the Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Brazil's Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME), the Energy Conservation Center, Japan (ECCJ) was commissioned to manage this project for the team from Brazil to investigate Japanese standards and performance test methods for energy-saving about commercial air conditioners, and the team of this project visited the Japan Air conditioning and Refrigeration Testing Laboratory (JATL) on Nov. 26th for receiving the lecture of mainly multi split-type air conditioners for building. That was the second lecture at JATL, following training last February with the implementation of the Brazilian energy labelling system for residential air conditioners.

Six Brazilian government officials (MME and INMETRO*) and four members of testing organizations (LABERO/PUCRS* and SGS Brazil*) visited JATL according to the plan of ECCJ and received the lecture of testing facility and testing methods with using multi split-type commercial air conditioners installed in the testing apparatus. A lot of questions not only about the testing methods but also about the Japanese certification program of performance for commercial air conditioners were asked in the Q&A session, and JATL thought the practical lectures have been conducted.

• *INMETRO : The National Institute of Metrology, Standardization and Industrial Quality
• *LABERO／PUCRS : One of the testing laboratories in Brazil located in Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul
• *SGS Brazil : One of the testing, inspection and certification company in Brazil

November 2024

Mr. Kishimoto who assumed the position of president this year came to JATL and gave a lecture about “failure” on 12th Nov. He made a presentation with the title of “Recommendation of good failure”. It was very helpful for us on the daily job.

Mr. Kishimoto stated human beings make mistakes, and it is important to investigate the causes of these failures and to create knowledge of the factors that led to them rather than to pursue responsibility for the failures that occurred. And he also stated it is important to communicate failure information, and explaining experiences that did not go well can be effective. He gave us a useful presentation with failure cases of predecessors.

November 2024

Japan Air Conditioning And Refrigeration Testing Laboratory (JATL) has been supporting the testing laboratories of air conditioners (ACs) to improve technical capability of testing variable-capacity-type ACs from 2012 in the projects in ASEAN. However, due to the pandemic of COVID-19, JATL couldn’t visit and support them locally for a few years. Therefore, JATL restarted visiting the testing laboratories nearby to keep good relationship and to share information about testing this year while visiting factories of ACs for inspection or training.

JATL visited B4T* and BRIN* in Indonesia this September and discussed about testing and testing facility. And JATL visited EEI* in Thailand and observed the new large-capacity testing facility this month. JATL has been acting to minimize the difference of performance test results of ACs among ASEAN testing laboratories and would like to continue to support in the future.

B4T：Center for Materials and Technical Products
BRIN：The National Agency for Research and Innovation
EEI：Electrical and Electronics Institute

October 2024

12th International Conference On Energy Efficiency in Domestic Appliances and Lighting（EEDAL’24）was held in Kitakyushu International Conference Center from 7th to 10th October 2024, which was organized by Jyukankyo Research Institute Inc. in collaboration with the University of Kitakyushu, as well as with support of Joint Research Centre – European Commission. JALT participated in this conference.

International Conference on Energy Efficiency in Domestic Appliances and Lighting (EEDAL) started in 1997 and has been held in European countries for improvement of energy efficiency of domestic appliances and lighting, and it is positioned as the international event to discuss the latest development in energy efficiency technologies, behavioral aspects and policies. In recent years, EEDAL was held in North America in 2017 and China in 2019, and international exchange is expanding. In this conference in Japan, 188 participants joined from 22 countries in person or online, and there were 84 submissions with 24 parallel sessions. In addition, keynote speeches and special lectures were given by experts.

JATL gave the presentation about the activities of technical support for the ASEAN testing laboratories of air conditioners in ASEAN*1 CSPF*2 project from 2021 to 2022.
*1：Association of Southeast Asian Nations
*2：Cooling Seasonal Performance Factor

May 2024

JATL held the annual business plan meeting on May 7th.. President Dr. Saito attended this meeting, and the director, general managers of planning department, operations & planning department and testing department made a presentation about the achievement of 2023 and planning of 2024 to all the members.

At the end of the meeting, Dr. Saito gave some comments for their presentation, which since new test methods will be standardized about the performance test of air conditioners near future JATL should evaluate and inspect them. And, he would like JATL to make a presentation about the performance test externally in his comments.

March 2024

The internal technical meeting was held in JATL in March, where the theme through daily work was chosen in the testing section and shared with the member of our laboratory.

We notice a lot of issues in the process of testing and the investigating results from those issues were presented in the technical meeting, and we had the active discussion every time.

The theme in this year was,
“Reviewing the calculating way of measurement uncertainty”

Measurement uncertainty of capacity of air conditioner was investigated with each factor of test procedure, and the evaluation results by reviewing calculating way based on ISO/TS 16491 were reported.