All Features
Belinda Jones
The PrecisionPath Consortium (PPC) for Large-Scale Manufacturing has completed and released their Technology Road Map for Large-Scale Manufacturing. The consortium is a collaboration of commercial-industry partners, the Coordinate Metrology Society, and the UNC Charlotte working to determine and…
Mike Richman
IMTS was a blast, but it was great to be back home in lovely Northern California this week. On this episode of QDL, we covered the skills that workers need and the innovations that organizations want. Plus, we brought you a live interview with author Mark Graban, and one on tape from Burt Mason of…
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
We’re almost done with another great IMTS, and we had a ball seeing old friends and meeting new ones while bringing you all the action right here on QDL. In this, our final episode from Chicago, we talked about the nature of the customer journey and how to motivate your team. Plus we had an in-…
Mike Richman
With more than 110,000 expected attendees, IMTS is Chicago’s hottest suburb this week. (I like to refer to it as “Manufactureville.”) Here’s what we covered during our second show of the week, from the booth of today’s sponsor, Q-Mark Manufacturing:
“Tapping Your Employee’s Knowledge”
It’s no…
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
We arrived in Chicago over the weekend to luxuriously appointed accommodations and much fanfare (that’s how it is when you’re the cast and crew of the No. 1 talk show in the quality industry). In our first episodes of Quality Digest Live from the floor of IMTS 2018, we were truly given the red-…
Mike Richman
IMTS is almost here, so we previewed the show, considered an important industry-academia partnership within manufacturing, and asked serious questions about the nature of motivation. Let’s take a look:
IMTS Preview
Dirk, I, and much of the Quality Digest Live crew will be in Chicago next week for…
Mike Richman
This week’s show contained a range of fun and interesting content from some of our favorite corners of the world of quality. Here’s what we covered:
“More Unidentified Museum Objects”
The National Institute of Standards and Technology has a wealth of crazy old artifacts from measurement days of…
Jason Stoughton
The underground storage shelves of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Museum are filled with loads of charmingly weird objects accrued throughout more than a century of scientific work. However, the original purpose of quite a few of these objects is lost in time. They are…
Richard Wilkinson
Whether it’s the effort to redefine the kilogram or researching the Harry Potter realm of quantum mechanics where things can somehow be in two or more places at one time, quite a bit of the science carried out at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) can be hard for the average…
Henry Zumbrun
Load cells are a combination of metal, strain gauges, glue, and more. Over time, fatigue ensures that there will be some instability in the system. Load cell stability or drift is usually assumed to be the amount of change in the entire cell system from one calibration cycle to the next. It is the…
Guangnan Meng
Modern 3D laser confocal scanning microscopes can resolve fine surface topography detail as minute as a few nanometers, quickly and easily. It’s the solution that advanced manufacturing industries turn to for efficient quality assurance surface inspections.
The changing needs of surface and…
Ryan E. Day
Factory and industrial inspections are the backbones of robust quality assurance programs. Inspection is also an integral part of machine system installation and maintenance, as well as in-situ repairs and retrofits. This is why highly competent individuals who understand the metrology methods of…
Andrew Nobleman
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has campuses in Maryland, Colorado, South Carolina, and Hawaii. Now, I know what you’re thinking, “Hawaiian campus? How do I get a job at NIST?”
Perhaps calling it a “campus” is a bit of an exaggeration. Ensconced within the U.S. Navy’s…
Nikon Metrology Inc.
A recent interview with Tadashi Nakayama, Nikon’s corporate vice president, provides insight into the strategy of the firm’s Industrial Metrology Business Unit, of which he is deputy general manager. In particular, he explained the company’s strategic focus on Quality 4.0, where digital, automated…
ZEISS Industrial Quality Solutions
The Hintsteiner Group in Austria inspects its customers’ complex components with the ZEISS COMET L3D. The company enjoys a global reputation, and designs and manufactures niche products for the aerospace, safety technology, automotive, and racing industries. The Hintsteiner Group consists of two…
Amanda Hunt
Tensile testing of materials is critical to a wide array of industries, which means preparing specimens for testing is equally important. If a specimen is not prepared correctly, the test results will be inaccurate; this is costly if a material fails a test that it should have passed, and…
NIST
Story update 7/13/2018: This story was updated with a link to the released version of standard E3125–17.
Large-volume 3D laser scanners play an essential role in manufacturing large products (e.g., airplane wings), making measurements for large-scale construction (e.g., bridges), and other…
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
In our June 29, 2018, episode of QDL, we discuss AR, VR, and innovation.
“Experience Augmented Reality Gauging With Marposs at IMTS 2018”
Augmented reality and virtual reality are fast becoming a part of test and assembly.
“Three Teams Named Grand-Prize Winners at ASME Innovation Showcase (ISHOW…
Mike Richman
Manufacturing is an eternally forward-looking sector. From the First Industrial Revolution about 250 years ago right up until the remarkable advances in connectivity and information analysis that form the heart of Industry 4.0, scientists, engineers, managers, marketers, and quality professionals…
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
In our June 15, 2018, episode of QDL, we get a field report from the HxGN LIVE user conference, examine the “story of quality,” and consider the importance of experience.
HxGN Live recap
Mike Richman went to HxGN LIVE... but I didn’t. I relive it vicariously through Mike’s field report.
“A…
Ryan E. Day
Advanced Integration Technology (AIT) serves the world’s largest and most technologically advanced aerospace OEMs and tier one suppliers, including Boeing, Airbus, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, BAE, Embraer, Spirit AeroSystems, Triumph, and Bombardier. AIT has facilities in the United States,…
NIST
I n November 2018, in Versailles, France, representatives from 57 countries are expected to make history. They will vote to dramatically transform the international system that underpins global science and trade. This single action will finally realize scientists’ 150-year dream of a measurement…
Jennifer Lauren Lee
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have been developing a novel way of measuring laser power. Their device, called the Radiation Pressure Power Meter (RPPM), makes its measurements using the force exerted by the laser light itself.
The NIST team has now fully…
Mike Richman
During the May 18, 2018, episode of QDL, we had a terrific conversation with Gary Confalone of the Coordinate Metrology Society, and also considered the importance of mindfulness and good manners in life and work. Let’s take a look:
CMS Corner interview with Gary Confalone Confalone is the CEO and…
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
In our May 11, 2018, episode of QDL, we looked at overproducing ideas, bad quotas (aren’t they all), and how anger can help identify core values.
“Questioning Quotas”
When are quotas bad? Most of the time. But here’s a good example.
“How to Find Your Company’s Core Values”
Oddly enough, your…
