33rd Annual Meeting
Sunday – Friday, November 4 – November 9, 2018
Red Rock Casino • Resort • Spa
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Conference Chair:
Kate M. Medicus, Ruda Cardinal, Inc.
Dan E. Luttrell (Kriterion, LLC)
Date and Time: TBA
Thermal effects represent the largest single source of systematic error and apparent non-repeatability in precision systems. Minimizing and controlling these effects offers the largest single source of improvement in a precision system and often at a fraction of the overall system cost. As precision systems continue to evolve and become more precise, the importance of understanding and controlling thermal effects becomes even more important since properties of materials that typically make up these systems do not change.
Starting with the four basic approaches to managing thermal effects, this tutorial will present the sources of static and dynamic thermal errors and several key design principles developed to address these errors. Concepts such as energy flow and athermalization will be presented to show how to think about thermal effects and develop ways to address them during design and testing. The basics of temperature measurement and control will be presented along with many examples from the past. Systems and devices currently available will also be discussed. A hands-on demonstration of the machine drift check will be setup for participants to see just how sensitive even simple designs are to the effects of thermal changes.