Improved infra-red procedure for the evaluation of calibrating units.

Details

• Creators:
  Flores, Arthur L.
• Corporate Creators:
  John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Alcohol blood tests
  • Law enforcement
  • Calibration
  • Vapors
  • Alcohol breath tests
  • Alcohol chemical tests
  • Gas chromatography
  • Infrared analysis
  • Evaluation
• Resource Type:
  Research Paper
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)
• NTL Classification:
  AGR-SAFETY AND SECURITY-SAFETY AND SECURITY ; NTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-SAFETY AND SECURITY ; NTL-SAFETY AND SECURITY-Highway Safety
• Abstract:
  Introduction. The NHTSA Model Specifications for Calibrating Units for Breath ; Alcohol Testers (FR 72 34742-34748) requires that calibration units submitted for ; inclusion on the NHTSA Conforming Products List for such devices be evaluated using ; one of three alternate procedures, all of which were developed at the Volpe Center. The ; first uses gas chromatography and wet gas reference samples for evaluation. This ; procedure is no longer used because of the advent of dry gas CUs on the market. Gas ; chromatography is an inappropriate technique for evaluation of dry gases using wet gas ; reference samples. A second alternative uses gas chromatography with dry gas reference ; samples. The dry gas references were obtained from the National Institute for Science ; and Technology. A third procedure uses a non-dispersive infra-red spectrophotometry. ; This third procedure is the preferred one, since reference samples are prepared at the ; Volpe Center so that reliance on outside sources for reference samples is not necessary. ; This preferred procedure uses a National Patent Analytical Systems, Inc. Datamaster ; breath alcohol analyzer instrument to analyze samples. This device is a non-dispersive ; infra-red spectrophotometer designed for breath (ethyl) alcohol analysis and is listed on ; the NHTSA Conforming Products List for evidential breath testers. Analysis is based on ; the absorption of a band of infra-red radiation centered at 3.4 microns, a wavelength area ; that is strongly absorbed by alcohol and which at the same time is not interfered with by ; other possible substances found in human breath, other than acetone.
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• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/12227/dot_12227_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 84.15 KB]
• Collection(s):
  Volpe Center
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:eb1ea7307a71c4ee9c83f844dff31eb63022e5fc3a52e108de60d6644ff8d07b