The simple shaft is one of the ubiquitous items in every mechanical system. Shafts contain a number of key functional elements, such as splines, tapers, grooves, threads, cams and gears, which all have associated critical dimensions to allow these mechanical systems to perform the function for which they were designed.

Form is a relatively easy thing to measure in many senses. In the simplest manner, form measurement involves a probe or stylus being moved along an ideal circular or linear path to gather data on the probe movements relative to that ideal geometry.

A friend of mine likes to quip that someday computers will make all our lives easier. He’s kidding (I think), but it seems to be a fact of modern life that every time we open our phones, tablets, or computers, or even check our watches, there are upgrades waiting to be installed for the apps we have, and new and improved apps on offer to replace those.

Calibration is not just about having stickers on your equipment with dates that say everything is okay.

The problem with surface finish is that it gets deep very quickly. Many people talk about the “finish” or the “roughness” of a surface as if it were one unique thing. 

We usually think of a “quantum leap” as a big thing, a great change or advance, and often when we are using this term, it is. Yet the term actually originates from atomic science and describes an electron moving from one energy level to another.

It seems that the subject of 3-D optical surface measurement is all the rage these days.

While John Goodman and Arnold Schwarzenegger are both 6’2”, few would argue that they have similar body shapes. What this says, simply, is that measuring size does not necessarily say anything about shape.

Most of the time form measurement looks at basic geometrical shapes: how round something is, how straight or even how flat it is.