Metrology
Contact surface-finish measurement and confocal optical surface-finish measurement are two different methods of measuring the roughness or irregularity of a surface.
Contact surface-finish measurement uses a diamond-tipped probe that moves across the part. There are two basic…
Consider a hypothetical turned shaft with a diameter specified as 20.000 mm ± 0.010 mm. The supplier reports 20.009 mm, just inside the upper limit of 20.010 mm, with an expanded measurement uncertainty of 0.003 mm. The buyer puts the shipment on hold: The uncertainty interval extends beyond the…
If you’re familiar with the maker community, you may already have encountered WhippetInTech, from a design engineer who documents his builds on YouTube. His projects span CAD design, CNC machining, and 3D printing anywhere that advanced technology can be applied creatively.
As…
If you engage in a game of word association, chances are when you hear the term Formula 1, responses will be terms associated with speed: race car, acceleration, fast, momentum, velocity...
But as much as Formula 1 is about speed, it’s also about controlling and channeling that…
Painter Bob Ross taught us that “happy accidents” can make beautiful art. Happy accidents also happen in science when experiments take research in unexpected directions. One dramatic example is Sir Alexander Fleming’s accidental discovery of penicillin.
Not all unexpected…
Four years ago, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researcher Cyrus Daugherty developed an algorithm to virtually unroll the tightly wrapped layers of a cylindrical lithium-ion battery. Daugherty’s software transformed X-ray images of the battery, taken at different angles,…
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