By: Viraj Shah
As the scientific study and practice of measurement, metrology is an extraordinarily important discipline within industries ranging from aerospace engineering to the production of everyday household items. Where precision measuring is required for quality control or safety, excellent and precise metrology equipment is an absolutely essential part of the manufacturing process.
To better understand metrology as an important concept and practice within manufacturing industries, we might consider the extent to which metrology forms the basis of many products that we take for granted on a daily basis.
Metrology: An Everyday Technology
When we purchase a standard Lego set for a family member, for example, we might not realize just how much the science of metrology has gone into the development and manufacturing of such a seemingly simple product.
Because standard Lego sets must incorporate many hundreds of independent and interlocking parts that in turn must also be compatible with any other set developed by the company over the course of its long history, the precision and reliability of metrology equipment used by the Lego Group must be superlative. In fact, less than 20 product pieces per million produced by the Lego Group fail to meet quality control standards. That is an astonishing rate of success that is dependent on quality metrology equipment.
Without exceedingly fine and accurate metrology equipment, in fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that the Lego Group would not be the success that it is today. To wit, the company’s truly extraordinary reputation for reliability is part and parcel a factor of its use of high-quality metrology equipment.
Expanding Human Knowledge and Production
Metrology equipment also plays a key role in advances achieved by leading scientists worldwide. Invented by the British physicist and metrologist Brian Kibble, for example, the Kibble balance is not just an important example of metrology equipment in practice but also a major scientific breakthrough in its own right: Because of the balance’s extraordinary capacity for extreme precision in measurement, scientists have been able to analyze the central-to-quantum-physics Planck constant so thoroughly that the definition of the kilogram has had to be reevaluated and changed. As a piece of metrology equipment, in other words, the Kibble balance not only changed the way in which scientists understand the universe but also the way in which we literally conceive of and measure the world around us on a day-to-day basis.
An Ancient History
Although metrology equipment can be found in almost any cutting-edge scientific endeavor or production campaign undertaken by an industry-leading corporation, the technological basis for using metrology equipment has a history stretching back many thousands of years. For example, standard metrology equipment such as gauges, protractors, and bevels were essential tools used by master masons for the precise building of immense cathedrals and other medieval and ancient structures. Metrology equipment has therefore played an incredibly vital role in the development of civilization and has been used in the creation of some of humankind’s greatest accomplishments. These range from scientific breakthroughs such as the development of space travel to works of art such as Michelangelo’s famous statue of the biblical monarch David.
There can be little doubt that the history of modern civilization would not exist without advances made in metrology equipment development. Metrology has been central to the practices of artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and scientists such as NASA engineers alike. And for any company staking its reputation on the quality of its manufacturing or research development, reliance on high-quality metrology equipment is an absolute must!
Published by: Khy Talara
