All Features
Bert Coursey
Marie Curie is perhaps the most famous woman of 20th-century science. Major films and best-selling biographies have chronicled her discovery of the radioactive elements polonium and radium, for which she shared the Nobel Prize in physics in 1903 and then received a second Nobel Prize, this time in…
Renishaw
Land Rover Ben Ainsile Racing (BAR) is no stranger to cutting-edge technologies. The British yacht racing team, formed by four-time Olympic gold medalist and America’s Cup winner Sir Ben Ainsile, uses artificial intelligence, big data analytics, and most recently, additive manufacturing (3D…
Ann Chiaramonti Debay
I have worked with many valuable materials in my career. Precious metals like gold and platinum, rare engineered nanomaterials, and fragile gemstones nearly as old as the Earth itself. But the unassuming jars of fine gray-brown powder I found myself holding last year left them all in the dust, so…
Katherine McIntosh
In 1970, the Seabee Memorial Association began construction to build a monument in Washington, D.C. to honor the memory of those who served in Naval Construction Battalions. The famous Felix de Weldon—a former Seabee—designed the monument of dark brown marble with bronze figures and a bronze back…
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
Businesses don’t have to chose between being “tree huggers” or “planet plunderers.” Black History Month: NIST employee was one of the developers of the computerized spreadsheet. Metrology: process signature analysis and large-field-of-view, multisensor systems.
“African-American History Month:…
NIST
To any of his sports-fan colleagues, NIST mathematician and computer programmer Vernon Dantzler might have been somewhat of a celebrity. Dantzler had been a professional baseball player, and a star shortstop in the Texas circuit of the Negro Baseball League during the early 1940s, before the…
Alexander Schönberg, Mike Wehn, Alexander Richter
Measurement-assisted assembly has been integrated into the production flow in recent years. Many processes are designed for a high repeatability through fixtures and maximum stiffness. They approach an optimal operating point through iterative processes using measurements. This approach permits…
Belinda Jones
The Coordinate Metrology Society, in collaboration with UNC Charlotte, announced the fifth working meeting of the PrecisionPath Consortium for Large-Scale Manufacturing will be held on March 23, 2017, in Dallas, at the Hyatt Regency DFW, Terminal C. The PrecisionPath Consortium has worked steadily…
Keith Bevan
To kick off 2017, the Coordinate Metrology Society (CMS) has recently launched a new website and brand refresh with new features and old favorites such as technical papers, presentations, and technical reports, to name but a few. The organization is also in full swing preparing for the 33rd annual…
George LeGrand
One of the questions our customers ask most frequently is, “How often do I need to have my machine inspected for alignment?” Unfortunately, there isn’t a simple answer. There are a number of factors that can affect the alignment of equipment and these should be taken into consideration when…
Ryan E. Day
Sponsored Content
In a TED Talk, Geordie Rose, co-creator of the D-WAVE quantum computer, said, “Humans use tools to do things. If you give humans a new kind of tool, they can do things they couldn’t otherwise do—imagine the possibilities.”
Rose was, of course, speaking of quantum computers, but…
Dirk Dusharme @ Quality Digest
In case you missed it, last week’s Quality Digest Live contained some great articles and discussion between myself and my co-host, Quality Digest publisher in chief Mike Richman. In the show, we covered:
“Manufacturing Trends to Watch in 2017”
In this run-down of technologies to watch, of…
Robin Materese
A catchphrase from a popular reality show goes: “One day you’re in. And the next day, you’re out.” For the purposes of the show, the host is referencing fashion. But the same could be said about science. With each new discovery or advance, an old theory or idea often becomes obsolete—or at least…
Ryan E. Day
Sponsored Content
Everything, it seems, has a vulnerability. For werewolves, it’s silver bullets. For Superman, it’s Kryptonite. For manufacturing—it’s rework. Rework means loss of throughput, which means loss of profit, which can mean death by a thousand rewelds. But, just as silver bullets can…
Jessica Gabel Cino
Forensic science has become a mainstay of many a TV drama, and it’s just as important in real-life criminal trials. Drawing on biology, chemistry, genetics, medicine, and psychology, forensic evidence helps answer questions in the legal system. Often, forensics provides the “smoking gun” that…
Matthew Pasek
For most of human history, people have been terrified by lightning. Frightening bolts from above, lightning was considered a tool of the gods to smite mortals for their hubris (or their unfortunate penchant for seeking shelter from storms under trees). The discovery and implementation of Benjamin…
Jennifer Lynch
The process of alloy grade verification has advanced significantly with the development of portable and handheld devices that bring analytical capabilities traditionally found in the laboratory to anywhere rapid metals identification is needed. For years, handheld analysis technology has provided…
Greg Fox
It’s that time of year again. The time when eggs get nogged, pudding gets figgy, and it becomes socially acceptable to speak in rhyme. So on that note, and with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore, I bring you this timely and heartfelt public service announcement. Enjoy.
’Twas the week before…
Joe Schlecht
According to the ISO/IEC Guide 99—“International vocabulary of metrology—Basic and general concepts and associated terms (VIM),” the traceability of a measurement result is demonstrated through a documented unbroken chain of calibrations, each contributing to the measurement uncertainty. This…
NIST
Throwing a perfect strike in virtual bowling doesn’t require your gaming system to precisely track the position and orientation of your swinging arm. But if you’re operating a robotic forklift around a factory, manipulating a mechanical arm on an assembly line, or guiding a remote-controlled laser…
From aerospace applications to simple one-off projects built at home, additive manufacturing (AM) has gained incredible interest in all industry facets. Its rapid expansion into production manufacturing is due to the technology's immense versatility and use.
With additive manufacturing, objects…
Siddharth Dhomkar, Jacob Henshaw
With the amount of data storage required for our daily lives growing, and available technology becoming saturated, we’re in desparate need of a new method of data storage.
The standard magnetic hard disk drive (HDD)—like what’s probably in your laptop computer—has reached its limit, holding a…
Welding is said to be more art than science. In part, this is a nod to the vital, skilled work that welders perform. It’s also recognition of the fact that the physics of the process is really, really difficult to understand.
I joined a NIST project on laser welding about two years ago. Before…
Donald J. Wheeler
Who can be against apple pie, motherhood, or good measurements? This is why everyone stands up and salutes when we are told to maintain our measurement systems in good calibration. But what is good calibration? By what method will we achieve it? And how will we know when we have it?
One day I…
Sponsored Content
Manufacturers often hold suppliers to a rigid quality process that dictates tight controls on all raw materials. Nonconforming material can potentially halt the production line, wasting time and money. Unfortunately, material mix-ups are a reality in critical manufacturing…
