From time to time there are advances in technology that merit recognition. From the invention of the measurement ruler, to the first electric light bulb, to the creation of the first transistor, which led to the invention of the computer—such devices have advanced our abilities to manufacture better products. Technological innovation has also been key to the advancement of coordinate measurement systems. One of fastest-growing class of technologies is portable measurement systems, specifically the laser tracker.

For years, precise length measurement was dedicated to fixed, structured systems, such as coordinate measurement machines (CMMs). There was a common belief that to be accurate, precise, and repeatable, a rigid structure like a CMM was the only way to get acceptable measurements. That way of thought was radically changed in 1986 when Dr. Kam Lau, then a research engineer at the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST), developed the modern laser tracker. A year later he founded Automated Precision Inc. (API) and the laser tracker soon became a commercially available product that freed manufacturers from the proverbial “box” of a structured CMM.

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