EPSRC Future Metrology Hub measures up

Measurement and validation is a cornerstone of manufacturing engineering, arguably the most important pillar, and overlooked in terms of ‘manufacturing strategy’ and by the media, in comparison to more visible fields such as additive manufacturing and robotics. That could change, as a new heavily invested UK research centre for advanced metrology gathers steam.

For decades, a manufacturer of components that require a high degree of accuracy would machine and form their parts using machine tools, and measure a regularly but randomly selected part on a coordinate measurement machine, or CMM. This process validates the parts, in batches, for an industry where such verification is a regulatory requirement, such as aerospace. Such a CMM measurement is typically done in a quality room by a dedicated team, though not always.

This final stage or ‘tailgate measurement’ is an additional process, and therefore a cost for a company. Depending how frequently each part is validated, it either adds greatly to the total manufacturing time or, for less frequent measurements, risks potentially scrapping a whole batch of parts that were made before the offending component failed the CMM stage. With Industry 4.0 and smart factories being the à la mode terminology, this area is receiving huge attention and is a main focus of the EPSRC Future Metrology Hub headquartered at the University of Huddersfield.