Mechanical

Measurements
& Metrology
(BMEMM4
17)

MODULE 1
BY
Dr. Shivashankar R
Assistant Professor
Dept. of Mechanical
SYLLABUS

MODULE 1:
Introduction to Metrology, Linear & Angular Measurements
Definition, objectives of metrology, Classification of standards,
Line, End & Wavelength Standards, Calibration of End bars.
Numerical examples. Slip gauges Indian standards on slip gauges,
Problems on building of slip gauges (M112).

Self-study Component: Autocollimator-Applications for

straightness and measuring
squareness.
❖ SYLLAB
US

MODULE
System 2: of Limits, Fits, Definitions, Tolerance,
Tolerance:
Tolerance tolerances)
analysis (addition &
Terminology, Numerical on limits, fit and
Fits, tolerance,
Types of Taylor’s
fits,
subtraction of
principle.

Self-study Component: Interchangeability & Selective

assembly
 SYLLABUS
MODULE 3:

Measurement of Thread and Gears: Terminology of

screw threads, Measurement of major diameter, Minor

diameter, Angle and Effective diameter of screw threads by 2-

Terminology, Toolmaker’s
microscope,
wire and 3-wire methods, best size wire.
of gear parameters
Self-study Component: (Chordal

Measurement thickness and depth)

SYLLABUS

MODULE 4:

Measurement Methods: Intermediate and Terminating Devices

Definition, Significance of measurement, Generalized
measurement system, Static characteristics- Accuracy,
Precision, Calibration, Sensitivity, Hysteresis, Repeatability,
Linearity, Classification of errors. Transfer efficiency. Primary and
Secondary transducers, Electrical, Mechanical transducers.

Self-study Component: Electronic transducers,

SYLLABUS

MODULE 5:

Measurement of force, Torque, Pressure: Types of Dynamometers,

Absorption dynamometer, Prony brake and Rope brake dynamometer and
Power Measuring Instruments McLeod gauge. Pirani gauge. Types,
Electrical resistance strain gauge, Methods of strain measurement,

Self-study Component: Methods of strain measurement,

COURSE OUTCOMES

Describe the concepts and processes related to measurement of length, angle, and
CO1 mechanical quantities
Apply the principles of engineering metrology to solve problems related to
CO2 measurement.
Analyze the process of measurement and working of different instruments to arrive
CO3 at a valid conclusion on its suitability.
Use appropriate methods to conduct an experiment, analyze data to arrive at a valid
CO4 conclusion.
INTRODUCTION TO METROLOGY

• Metrology is the science of measurement, encompassing the

theoretical and practical aspects of measurement across
various fields. Its primary goal is to ensure accuracy,
consistency, and reliability in measurements, which are crucial
for scientific research, industrial processes, commerce, and
everyday life.
 g ive n to th e sc ie nc e of pure
Metrology is the name
measurement.

c te d to m e a sure m e nts of
is restri
Engineering Metrology
length & angle.

d a s th e p ro c e ss o f n um erical
Measurement is define th e p ro c e ss o f com p a ri son
no r
evaluation of a dimensio ru ments.
a nda rd m e a su ri ng in st
with st
Accuracy: the closeness of the measured
value to a standard or true value.
Precision : the closeness of two or more
measurements to each other
KEY ASPECTS OF METROLOGY

• Measurement
Standards
• Units of Measurement
• Instrumentation
• Calibration
• Uncertainty Analysis
• Traceability
• Legal Metrology
• Metrology in Industry
LINEAR AND ANGULAR MEASUREMENTS

Linear measurements involve determining the length or distance

between two points along a straight line. This can be done using
various instruments such as rulers, tape measures, callipers,
meters. Linear
micrometres, measurementsare
or laser distance fundamentalin fields such
as
construction, engineering, manufacturing, and surveying.
Angular measurements, on the other hand, involve determining the
angle between two lines or surfaces. Angles are measured in
degrees, radians, or other units, depending on the application.
Instruments used for angular measurements include protractors,
Angular measurements
theodolites, goniometers,
inclinometers. and digital are essential in
fields such as navigation, astronomy,
engineering, and robotics.
Goniometer
OBJECTIVES OF METROLOGY

The basic objectives of metrology are as follows:

• To provide the required accuracy at minimum cost.
• Through evaluation of newly developed products,
and to ensure that components are within
the specified dimensions.
• To determine the process capabilities.
• To assess the measuring instrument capabilities and ensure that
they are adequate for their specific measurements.
• To reduce the cost of inspection by effective and
efficient utilization of available facilities.
CONT
..
• To reduce the cost of rejections and rework by applying
statistical quality control techniques.
• To standardize measuring methods by
proper inspection methods at the
development stage itself.
• To maintain the accuracies of measurement through periodical
calibration of the measuring instruments.
• To prepare designs for gauges and special inspection fixtures.
STANDARDS

A standard is defined as something that is setup and

established by an authority as a rule for the measure of
quantity, weight, extent, value or quality.
For example: A metre is a standard establishedby an
organization
international for the measure of length.
Industry, commerce, international trade and in fact, modern
civilization itself would be impossible without a good system of
standards.
The role of standards is to achieve, uniform, consistent and
repeatable measurements and to support the systems which make
such measurements possible throughout the world.
STANDARDS OF LENGTH

• In practice the accurate measurement must be made by

comparison with a standard of known dimension and such
a standard is called “primary standard”.
• Rapid advances were made in engineering due to the improved
materials available and the development of more accurate
measuring techniques.
• The first accurate standard was made in England and was
known As Imperial Standard Yard. This was followed by
International Prototype Meter made in France. Since these two
standards of length were made of metal alloys they are called
material length standards.
INTERNATIONAL PROTOTYPE METER

Established in 1875 in France.

It is made in TRESCA Cross Section.
It Contains Platinum-Iridium alloy at 90%-10%.
It containing a dimension of 16mmX16mmX1020mm.
It measures 1000mm or 1m at 0Celcius.
The engraved lines lies on the top surface of the web.
The Platinum-Iridium alloy is used because of its non-oxidable
& good
retainable polished surface.
Imperial Standard Yard:
IMPERIAL STANDARD YARD

• The imperial standard yard is a bronze bar 1 sq. inch in a cross

section and 38 inches in length. It has a composition of 82%
Cu, 13% Tin and 5% zinc.
• The bar contains holes of ½ inch diameter and ½ inch depth. It has
two round recess each located 1 inch away from either end and
extends up to the central plane of the bar.
• The highly polished gold plug having a diameter of an inch
comprises three transversely engraved lines and two
longitudinal lines that are inserted into each of those holes
such that the lines lie in the neutral plane.
• The top surface of the gold plug lies on the neutral axis.
Cont
..
• Yard is defined as “the distance between two central transverse
lines of the plug maintained at 620F”.
• One advantage of maintain gold plug lines in the neutral axis is
that this axis remains unaffected due to the bending of the
beam.
• Another advantage is that the gold plug is protected
from getting accidentally damaged.
• There is an error occurring in the neutral axis because of the
support provided at the ends.
• This error can be avoided by placing the support in such a way
that the slope at the ends is zero and the flat end faces of
the bar are mutually perpendicular to each other.
The composition is 82%Cu, 13%Tin, 5%Zn
Overall length of Bronze bar is 38”
2 gold plugs are placed below the neutral axis
The diameter of gold plug is (1/10)’’
 The distance between the gold plug is 36”@ 62F
Yard is defined as the distance between the 2 central transverse
lines of the gold plug.
1Yard = 36”
1Yard=0.9144meter
AIRY POINTS

•
Disadvantages of Material Length Standards

• Material length standards varies in length over the years

owing to molecular changes in the alloy from which they were
made thus seriously affecting the fine (accurate)
measurements.
• The exact replicas of material length standards were not
available for use somewhere else
• If these standards are accidentally damaged or destroyed,
then exact copies could not be made
• Conversion factor has to be used for changing over to metric
system
CLASSIFICATION OF STANDARDS

The imperial standard yard and international prototype metre,

defined previously are master standards and cannot be used for
ordinary purposes. Thus, depending upon the importance of
accuracy required, the standards are sub divided into four grades:
• Primary standards

• Secondary standards

• Tertiary standards

• Working standards
HIERACHY OF MEASUREMENT STANDARDS

Primary
Standards

Secondary
Standards
Tertiary
Standards

Working
Standards
Primary Standards: For precise definition of a unit i.e., imperial
standard yard or International prototype meter, it is essential that
there should be one, and only one material standard. This is called
primary standard and is preserved under most careful conditions.
This has no direct application to a measuring problem encountered
in engineering. They are used only at rare intervals of 10 or 20
years solely for comparison with secondary standards.

2) Secondary Standards: These are close copies of primary

standards with respect to design, material and length. These are
made, as far as possible exactly similar to primary standards. Any
error existing in these standards is recorded by comparison with
primary standards after long intervals.
They are kept at number of places under great supervision and are
3) Tertiary Standards: The primary or secondary standards exists as
the ultimate controls for reference at rare intervals.
Tertiary standards are reference standards employed by National
Physical Laboratory (N.P.L) and are the first standards to be used for
reference in laboratories and workshops. They are also made as true
copy of secondary standards and are kept as reference for
comparison with working standards

4) Working standards: These standards are similar in design to

primary, secondary and tertiary standards, but being less in cost and
are made of low-grade materials They are used for general
applications in metrology laboratories
LIGHT WAVE (OPTICAL) LENGTH STANDARD

• Because of the problems of variation in length of material length

standard, the possibility of using light as a basic unit to define
primary standard has been considered.
• The eleventh general conference on weights and measures held
in Paris in 1960 defined the metre as equal to 160763.73
wavelengths of the orange radiation of krypton 86 isotope in
• vacuum
The metre maintained at 68
is defined asK.1650763.73 wavelengths of the
orange
radiation in vacuum of the krypton 86 isotope.
• The yard is defined as 1509458.35 wavelengths of the orange
radiation in vacuum of the krypton 86 isotope. The yard is also
defined as 0.9144 metre.
ADVANTAGES OF USING WAVELENGTH
STANDARD AS A
BASIC UNIT TO DEFINE PRIMARY STANDARDS
• Length does not change.
• It can be reproduced easily if destroyed.
• This primary unit can be accessible to any physical laboratories.
• It can be used for making comparative
measurements with much higher accuracy than
with the material standards.
• Wavelength standard can be reproduced consistently at any
time and at any place.
LINE STANDARDS

• The length being measured is expressed as distance between two

lines
is called line standards.
Ex: Measuring scale, Imperial standard yard, International
Prototype meter.
• Line standards do not provide high accuracy as that of end
standards.
CHARACTERISTICS OF LINE STANDARDS

• A scale is quick & easy to use over a wide range of

measurements.
• Scale can be accurately engraved but it is difficult to take full
advantage of this accuracy.
Ex: Steel rule can be read about +/- 0.2mm of true dimension.
• Scales are not convenient for close tolerance length
measurements except in conjunction with microscope.
• Scales are subjected to parallax effect, which is a source of both
positive & negative reading errors.
• The scale markings are not subjected to wear although significant
wear on leading ends results in “undersizing”.
END STANDARDS

• The lengthbeing measuredis expressedas the distance between

2 parallel end faces called End Standards.
• Ex: Slip gauge, Gap gauges etc.
• End standards can be made to a very high degree of accuracy.
CHARACTERISTICS OF END STANDARDS

• End standards are highly accurate and are well suited for
the
measurements of close tolerance.
• They are time consuming in use and prove only one dimension at
a time.
• Dimensional tolerance as small as 0.0005mm can be obtained.
• End standards are subjected to wear on their measuring surfaces.
• They are not subjectedto parallaxeffect since their use depends
on
“feel”.
• Group of blocks are “wrung” together to build up
any length, faulty wringing leads to damage.
Slip Gauges (Johannson Gauges) or Gauge Blocks

• They are rectangular blocks of steel having cross section of

30mm face length & 10mm face width.
• They are commonly used End standards in engineering practice.
• They are made up of high-grade steels with a range of sizes in
a set enabling dimensions to build up 0.005mm, 0.001mm
or 0.0005mm according to the set chosen.
• Slip gauges are also manufactured from Tungsten Carbide, which
is an extremely hard & wear resistant material.
• The slip gauges are first hardened to resist wear & carefully
stabilized so that they are independent of any subsequent
variation in size or shape.
CONT
..
• The hardened blocks are carefully finished on the measuring
faces to such a fine degree of finish, flatness & accuracy
that any two such faces when perfectly clean may be
“Wrung”.
Slip Gauge Box
Types of Slip Gauges

□Rectangular slip gauge:

✔ They are less expensive to manufacture.
✔ They are used where spaceis limited or where
excess weight is undesirable.
□Square slip gauge:
✔ They are expensive.
✔ The larger surface area helps in better adherement of gauges.
✔ They will not wear out easily.
□Square with centre hole slip gauge:
✔ These gauges are inserted on to the tie
rods to ensure that the wrung stock do not fall apart
while handling.
INDIAN STANDARD ON SLIP GAUGES (IS : 2984 –
1966)
• Slip gauges are graded according to their accuracy as Grade 0,
Grade I and Grade II.

• Grade II is intended for use in workshops during the actual

production of components, tools and gauges.

• Grade I is of higher accuracy and used in inspection departments.

• Grade 0 is used in laboratories and standard room which

serves as standard for periodically checking the accuracy of
Grade I and Grade II gauges.
Generally, two sets of slip gauges are used
namely: i) Normal set andii) special set are used. A
normal set consists of the following gauges:
Wringing Procedure of Slip Gauge

• The top slip gauge is moved parallel to the bottom one with some
force.
• As the centre of top gauge reaches the middle part of bottom
gauge, top gauge has to rotate and make it parallel to bottom
one.
• The slip gauges got wrung by air gap.
Transfer from line standard to end standard or
NPL method of deriving end standard from line standard.
In order to transfer the line standard correctly to the ends of the bar
an instrument called line standards comparator is used.
It consists of 2 microscope mounted about a yard apart over a table.
 An end standard about 35 ½”in length is produced with end faces
flat & mutually parallel.
Two ½”blocks are then wrung to the ends of this end standard. The
two ½” blocks are engraved with a line on one surfaces
approximately at the centre of two end faces.
The distance between central lines is approximately 36”.
The actual length of 35.5” end standard is ‘l’, the distance between
2 lines on line standard is 36”.
The two blocks at the ends are arranged in 4 ways.
The difference of readings between lines on end line standards are
noted down for every time.
The difference are d1, d2,d3 and d4 respectively.
l+b+c=36”+d1
l+b+d=36”+d2
l+a+c=36”+d3
l+a+d=36”+d4
On adding,
4l+2(a+b+c+d)=4X36”+d
l+(a+b+c+d)/2= 36”+d/4 1
Calibration on single end
 l+a+b=L+D1
l+c+d=L+D2
On adding,
2l+a+b+c+d=2L+D
l+(a+b+c+d)/2=L+ D/2 2
Comparing 1&2
L+ D/2= 36”+ d/4
[L= 36”+ d/4- D/2]
Calibration of End bars:
L= length of 1m end bar
LA= length of 500mm length bar A
LB= length of 500mm length bar B
X1=Difference between 1m length bar & combined
length of bars A & B.
X2=Difference between the bar A&B
L= LA+ LB + x1 1
LB= LA + x2 2
Substitute 2 in 1
L= LA + LA + x2 + x1
2LA = L
+ x1 + x2
LA =(L + x1 + x2)/2
LB =L + x A 2