All Features
Dawn Keller
I really can’t make this stuff up.
I wrote a post a couple of years ago titled: “How to Talk to Your Kids About... Quality Improvement,” in which I lamented about Community Hero Day in my daughter’s first-grade class and the need to explain to her why I wasn’t at the “community-hero level” of…
NIST
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers and their industrial partners aim to add a new dimension to manufacturing capabilities. In a new project, they will demonstrate the feasibility—and benchmark the advantages—of using standardized 3D models for electronically…
Stotz Gaging Co.
It’s a fact that air gauges are typically not in use approximately 90 percent (or more) of the time they’re in your shop or QC department. Because these gauges function by using clean and dry compressed air in a highly controlled flow, this relatively expensive commodity can cost your operation…
Gary Phillips
All manufacturing companies that get audited require some or all of their calibration certificates to specify the calibration uncertainty. At a minimum, some manufacturers only need certified uncertainty for gauges that are reference standards used to calibrate other gauges. Those companies…
Ryan E. Day
When auto manufacturers set out to create award-winning vehicles, much consideration is given to interior sound quality. Ironically, the manufacturers have been so successful in mitigating road noise they have inadvertently caused a new problem for themselves: Apparently, the cars are too quiet.…
Ron Rode
Several years back, I was asked this question: Does measurement software have the ability to determine scale without the use of scale bars? On numerous occasions in a variety of ambient conditions, I have tested and compared the results of initially setting up a system using temperature/material…
Hubert Meagher
Most manufacturing facilities have to manage the seemingly never-ending cycle of having to keep costs down while increasing production levels and maintaining high quality standards. Often, this ongoing struggle includes a reduction in staff and resources, and a lower-than-ever budget for…
The reconstruction of scenes from multiple images or video streams has become an essential component in many modern applications. Many fields, including robotics, surveillance, and virtual reality, employ systems to reconstruct a 3D representation of an environment in order to accomplish specific…
Gary Phillips
Every manufacturing company that gets audited, anywhere in the world, is required to do gauge repeatability and reproducibility (R&R) studies. In some cases, this one study is the only chance to find unknown problems with measurement quality. (When problems do occur, it is often downstream…
Robert Bellinger
The age of advanced digital microscopy is here—highly sophisticated image processing can now be performed with the same ease of use one would expect from a smartphone, tablet, or digital camera. Specifically designed for the needs of industrial QA/QC control labs, digital microscopes like the…
Ryan E. Day
We all know what happens to a squeaky wheel, right? But just how loud does a wheel need to squeak before it’s squeak-worthy of replacement?
During my years of auto repair, one of the interesting tidbits I was hipped to was this: What human ears perceive as a squeak is actually a high-frequency…
Tom Nelligan, Daniel Kass
Nondestructive testing (NDT), as the name implies, is a methodology used for examining the hidden internal structure, measuring the thickness, or characterizing the material of industrial parts without cutting or otherwise damaging them.
NDT offers important tools for ensuring both safety and…
Duan Jiaheng
Handan Iron & Steel Group (Han Steel) was established in 1958 in the Hebei province, China. The company is capable of producing up to 10,000,000 tons of steel annually and plays a vital role in China’s steel production. To maintain quality control in the production process, Han Steel relied on…
NIST
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a laser-based imaging system that creates high-definition 3D maps of surfaces from as far away as 10.5 meters. The method may be useful in diverse fields, including precision machining and assembly, as well…
Jacqueline Graham
A critical aspect of managing processes is the ability to measure well. Confidence in the integrity of collected data is imperative to ensure that appropriate decisions are made about acceptable product and process changes. It is possible that products declared “out of specification” may be the…
Quality Digest
In October 2001, an international team led by Lockheed Martin was awarded the contract to build the next-generation Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft, which resulted in the development of the F-35 Lightning. The requirements for the new aircraft were complex, demanding new heights of lethality…
Steinbichler
Ford Motor Co.’s Nondestructive Evaluation Laboratory (NDE) in Livonia, Michigan, is a leading facility for quality test inspection and failure analysis of automotive components. Historically, many of the automaker’s manufacturing programs depended heavily on coordinate measuring machines (CMMs)…
Gary Phillips
Assuming there are still questions about the suitability of a gauge for a particular application after a gauge repeatability and reproducibility (GR&R) study, Measurement Systems Analysis, 4th Edition (MSA-4), published by AIAG in 2010, recommends using an additional study in the calibration…
NIST
At the new NIST Center for Automotive Lightweighting (NCAL), workloads are fraught with stress and strain—all to help the auto industry take a heavy load off future cars and light trucks.
To meet proposed federal fuel-efficiency standards—54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, or nearly double today’s…
NIST
Recent experiments have confirmed that a technique developed several years ago at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) can enable optical microscopes to measure the 3D shape of objects at nanometer-scale resolution—far below the normal resolution limit for optical microscopy (…
NIST
Crash-test dummies, yarn-spinning machines, and steel girders in bridges. What do they have in common? Look inside them all and you find transducers, devices that measure the forces that push, pull, weigh upon, and slam into them. But transducers also have something in common: Until recently, it…
Ryan E. Day
'Pssst! Hey kid, ya wanna be a metrologist?"..."Uh, what's a metrologist?"... "Ya get paid to measure stuff."..."Sounds kinda boring." So it goes at colleges and universities all across the United States.
The fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—collectively known as STEM—…
The use of optical 3D shape measurement devices are rapidly gaining importance, allowing the reconstruction of real 3D objects efficiently. The 3D shape and texture can be obtained from stereo images acquired with a freely moving camera. This approach measures the image displacement from the…
Cathy Hayat
Finance professional Joe Fabiani never imagined his love of exotic cars would develop into a full-time career. It began when he searched for an improved exhaust for his Porsche 993 but was at a loss to find one that conformed to the specifications he had in mind. Frustration with OEM stock…
Ron Rode
“So what’s the weather gonna do today?” I am sure that we have all been asked that after answering the first question (about what we do for a living) with: “Metrology.”
Metrology or meteorology? Both are studies of a particular science but are two words that are easily mistaken or misinterpreted…
