All Features
Donald Hillger
This year, 2016, marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Metric Association (USMA). Our mission is to help the United States complete its transition to the metric system. Although we’ve always expected that the adoption of the metric system here was just around the corner, all…
Electronic temperature compensation has been successfully applied to shop-floor gauges for more than 25 years. It’s become a mature technology and proven to be one of the most easily cost-justified means to achieve gauge correlation and eliminate the most common cause of high-resolution gauge…
Sponsored Content
The new Geomagic Control X inspection product from 3D Systems offers a computer-aided design (CAD)-like interface and an improved workflow for Geomagic Control users. By including extended product manufacturing information support, users of popular CAD systems can now seamlessly…
Milan Kocic
Picture this: Your coordinate measuring machine (CMM) has crashed for the umpteenth time, and now it’s out of commission because you need to replace the probe head. Does this sound familiar? Across the world, manufacturers are facing the same problem: A situation occurs, you have to call the CMM’s…
Kate Remley
If you’ve ever used a device that picks up signals over the air, you know that sometimes you just can’t get the signal to come in clearly. You point the device every which way, move it all around the room, do a little dance, but nothing seems to work. There doesn’t seem to be any explanation.…
Ryan E. Day
Sponsored Content
You might say what Henry Ford did for the automobile, GE, Siemens, and Mitsubishi have done for the gas and steam turbine industry. Naturally, the tools and technicians of both sectors have had to evolve right along with the challenges of new technology and the ever-increasing…
Eugene Daniell
Sponsored Content
If NASCAR teams had to choose a capitol city, Charlotte, North Carolina, would be the most likely. With so many teams clustered around this city and its celebrated racetrack, savvy specialty suppliers have moved to the region to help NASCAR teams build speed and reliability into…
NIST
After it’s all over, your lights will be just as bright, and your refrigerator just as cold. But very soon the ampere—the base unit in the International System of Units (SI) for electrical current—will take on an entirely new identity. In 2018, the SI base units are scheduled to be re-defined in…
Quality Digest
Three special shows were broadcast LIVE from booths of our marketing partners at IMTS in Chicago. Each episode covered events of the show and demonstrations of our partners' latest products.
• Tues., Sept. 13: 3D Systems' Geomagic 3D Inspection Software for first-article and production inspection…
NIST
NIST scientists have devised and modeled a unique optical method of sorting microscopic and nanoscopic particles by size, with a resolution as fine as 1 nm for particles of similar composition.
A stream of particles of various sizes enters the system at a single point, but the particles exit the…
Greg Anderson
Government and commercial insurers are transforming payment systems from a fee-for-service reimbursement model to arrangements that include incentives for quality, outcomes, improved patient satisfaction, and reduced cost.
In the fee-for-service environment, hospitals, physicians, and other…
François Leclerc
Color is a big differentiator in the world of 3D scanning, but when it comes to inspection or reverse engineering, it’s usually not mandatory and sometimes not even important. However, color is paramount in applications such as heritage preservation, which is the 3D scanning and digitization of…
Amir Grinboim
Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence recently released the latest system in its 3D optical scanner portfolio, the BLAZE 600M. The solution is similar to structured light but comprised of a blended combination of technologies that allow it to be faster and more accurate than traditional structured-…
Keith Bevan
Understanding the benefits of having sound knowledge, perspective, and the appropriate skill sets in metrology is just as crucial in today’s technological world as it was 50 years ago. The same goes for key decision making based on solid processes, procedures, methods, and data analysis. Taking…
Belinda Jones
A year ago, at the 2015 Coordinate Metrology Society Conference (CMSC), the PrecisionPath Consortium for Large-Scale Manufacturing started its journey toward building a sustainable, industry-driven coalition that continues to attract the brightest minds in manufacturing and metrology. The recent…
Third Dimension
(Third Dimension, Bristol, UK) -- Executive TV is excited to announce Manufacturing Change, the latest addition to their ongoing series of industrial documentaries exploring the United Kingdom’s manufacturing sector and its future. This program features Bristol-based Third Dimension, experts in…
API Services
Although it sank more than 150 years ago, the USS Monitor has an everlasting place in history.
As one of the first of the so-called "ironclads," the Monitor, along with its Confederate Army foe, the CSS Merrimack, fought to a draw at the Battle of Hampton Roads, VA, on March 9, 1862. From that…
Dimensional measurement has been used as a part of manufacturing systems for many years. However, although shop floor measurement equipment can be used next to a manufacturing machine and its measurement data can be digitally interfaced to change some manufacturing parameters, machine tools…
Eugene Daniell
Sponsored Content
For more than 30 years, Hendrick Motorsports has consistently been one of NASCAR’s most successful teams. In the course of winning a record 11 Sprint Cup Series championships, Hendrick Motorsports has learned that it must innovate constantly to stay ahead of the competition.…
Patrick Nugent
Sponsored Content
A simple fact in manufacturing is that everyone has to measure. However, when precision is the ultimate goal, measurement is not simply about inspection, it’s about process control. Manufacturers need the right tools to increase quality, maximize productivity, and, ultimately, to…
Fred Schenkelberg
Spending too much on reliability and not getting the results you expect? Just getting started and not sure where to focus your reliability program? Or, just looking for ways to improve your program?
There’s not one way to build an effective reliability program. The variations in industries,…
Ryan E. Day
Sponsored Content
In today's hyper-competitive, fast-paced manufacturing world, there is rarely anything like a "routine" day at the office—especially when you're a tier-one supplier for some of the largest aerospace companies in the world. To make the grade and satisfy this kind of demanding…
Michael Huda
Speaking the language of color isn’t like telling someone your name and expecting him to remember it. Our minds just don’t process color like that.
While vague color descriptions are sufficient for many people—“Turn left at the blue house” or “Choose the reddest strawberries”—if you work in an…
Evan Miller
Sponsored Content
The CIO for a multiplant packaging company was in an uncomfortable spot. Bringing six newly acquired plants under the corporate umbrella was going smoothly, but he saw that at least in quality systems, there would have to be an unpopular change. The plants were using two…
Anthony Vianna
Sponsored Content
Every bicycle frameset used at the Tour de France (and any machine raced at any UCI-sanctioned bicycle event for that matter) is validated by the Union Cyclist Internationale (UCI). Enabling this intensive process is a bike measurement system based on a ROMER Absolute Arm from…
