Measurement and inspection standards are traditionally updated on a regular schedule. However, the form measurement standard for out of roundness, B89.3.1, has not been updated since its initial release in 1972, and is no longer an active standard available through ANSI.

The journey to create a standard is very interesting and requires attention to detail. Before a standard can be created one must develop the need and benefits for its development.

In production, every aircraft structure component will undergo inspection by one of the primary NDT methods. In-service aircraft will experience subsequent nondestructive testing, eddy current inspection being one the primary methods. This article serves to highlight the more common forms of eddy current applications on in-service aircraft.

Color is a critical part of any product. It’s the first thing your customer sees. Whether you are manufacturing components for assembly or finished assembled goods, the color has to be right every time or you risk scrapping, reworking, or discounting the product. This impacts your bottom line.

In aerospace, a defect, mismeasurement, or slight error can be the difference between a successful launch and mission failure. It’s because of this that aerospace companies have the most stringent requirements for quality and dimensional accuracy.

When Donald Engineering sales manager Jim Kortman describes his aluminum extruder client of 28 years, he reaches for a deceptively simple analogy: the Play-Doh Fun Factory. 

How small can pixels on an image sensor become? We probably don’t know the answer except that they might become very, very small.

Over the last few years, collaborative robotics has come to the fore as a way to increase manufacturing flexibility and improve ROI. When considering a human-robot collaborative workcell, we explicitly incorporate and expect humans to be safely working close to and/or interacting with the robot during operation. 

Autonomous machine vision inspection provides quick, automated defect recognition and can implement the knowledge it gains, thereby decreasing false alarms and erroneous scrap.

Ask a machinist, “What tool do you use most often?” Most likely the answer will be “my calipers.”