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Background

The American Society for Precision Engineering (ASPE) has constituted a number of Technical leadership Committees (TLCs) in an effort to enhance the technical strength of the society and promote increased participation of the members in charting the Society’s technical directions. In the future, these TLCs will be chaired by individual Board members with responsibility for particular technology areas. At the present time, the committees will be headed by one serving member of the Board and one appointed chair to facilitate an orderly transition. Six technical areas have been identified with Metrology Systems being one of them.

 

Technical Scope

The primary subject area of the Metrology Systems TLC (MSTLC) includes (but is not limited to) instruments, methods and techniques of dimensional metrology, i.e., the measurement of size, form and finish. Additional topic areas may include machine tool metrology, force, mass, etc. More specifically, the areas under the purview of the Committee address the hardware aspects of measurement instruments and will include sub‐topics such as the following:

  • Instrument hardware design
  • Sensor technologies
  • Systems engineering
  • Instrument classifications
  • Applications

 

Responsibilities and Deliverables

The responsibilities and deliverables of the TLC are as follows:

  • Keep abreast of and understand the State‐of‐the‐Art (SOTA)
  • Advise the Annual Meeting chair on SOTA, relevance of topics, proposals for Keynote speakers and invited/special papers.
  • Recommend topical meeting(s) and assist the meeting Chair
  • Solicit qualified conference papers and speakers in consultation with the Annual Meeting Chair to deliver an appropriate description of the SOTA
  • Prepare a review paper for publication in Precision Engineering
  • Oral presentation at the ASPE Annual Meeting reporting the learning of the Committee

 

Purview of the MSTLC

The technical area of the MSTLC is closely related to the topic area of another TLC, i.e., the Characterization TLC (CTLC). It is therefore important to distinguish between the technical areas under the purview of the two committees to avoid duplication of effort and provide the broadest coverage possible. The figure below attempts to clarify the areas of responsibility and overlap between the two committees.

 

Proposed Organization of the Technical Areas for the MSTLC

The technical area under the purview of the MSTLC is vast and will need an overarching structure to guide the organization of the information and the division of effort. Two such structures are proposed below to help organize an ongoing survey of the various measurement technologies

  • Organization by the various measurement technologies by measuring principle, e.g., optical,
    capacitance, etc. and their application to the measurement of key dimensional characteristics,
    e.g., dimension, form and finish. Each of these characteristics will be the focus of an annual review
    paper.
  • Organization by the various measurement technologies by measuring principle and their
    application at various size scales, e.g., micro, macro and large scale. Annual review papers will
    focus on a particular size scale.

The structures proposed above could potentially result in a review paper on each measurement characteristic or size scale on a three year cycle. The purview of the MSTLC may also extend to other quantities of interest, such as force, mass, etc. Dedicated review papers may be produced on special topics as needed, e.g., gear metrology.

 

Committee Interactions

The Committee will meet periodically (at least every 3 months) to provide updates, discuss progress and coordinate efforts. . Periodic meetings will be held using web‐based teleconferencing tools. Face‐to‐face meetings will be held when a sufficiently large portion of the group is physically present at a single geographic location, e.g., ASPE Annual or Topical Meeting. Members who are unable to attend may attend via web‐based teleconference.

 

Committee Governance & Structure

The committee is be headed by the responsible elected member of the Board and a vice‐chair elected from among the Committee’s membership. The expectation is that the vice‐chair will succeed the current chair to ensure continuity. The committee will have members with expertise in different areas of metrology. Part of the committee formation process will be to identify these areas and recruit people with the appropriate expertise. Overlapping areas of expertise are to be expected and are welcomed. Sub‐committees in each technical area are also a possibility.

 

Interaction with the Society

The MSTLC will interact with the Executive Committee of the ASPE on a regular basis through the committee chair(s). Frequency of this interaction is TBD.

 

Membership

Once the MSTLC is fully functioning it is expected to consist of members with a broad range of interests and expertise in various aspects of metrology systems, and broad representation from industry, government, and academia. Committee members will be encouraged to actively solicit and recruit new members, and if sufficient interest exists to create new sub‐committees and special interest groups.