Challenges to NIST in Dimensional Metrology: The Impact of Tightening Tolerances in the U.S. Discrete-Part Manufacturing Industry

摘要

Dimensioned geometry is one of the most critical attributes of a host of manufactured goods including airplanes, automobiles, VCRs, communications systems, and computers. These and the other discrete-part products are able to function because the individual physical parts of which they are made have specified dimensions. With Japan as pacesetter, global competition in manufacturing of such products has lead to dramatically tighter tolerances on these dimensions. Tighter tolerances require greater accuracy, in both the measurements which industry must make to control production and the measurements which NIST must make to support industry. This report looks at some recent changes in dimensional tolerances in a number of U.S. discrete-parts manufacturing industries and the measurement challenges to NIST they pose.