Gauge Blocks - A Zombie Technology.

Gauge blocks have been the primary method for disseminating length traceability for over 100 years. Their longevity was based on two things: the relatively low cost of delivering very high accuracy to users, and the technical limitation that the range of high precision gauging systems was very small. While the first reason is still true, the second factor is being displaced by changes in measurement technology since the 1980s. New long range sensors do not require master gauges that are nearly the same length as the part being inspected, and thus one of the primary attributes of gauge blocks, wringing stacks to match the part, is no longer needed. Relaxing the requirement that gauges wring presents an opportunity to develop new types of end standards that would increase the accuracy and usefulness of gauging systems.

20 °C-A Short History of the Standard Reference Temperature for Industrial Dimensional Measurements.

One of the basic principles of dimensional metrology is that a part dimension changes with temperature because of thermal expansion. Since 1931 industrial lengths have been defined as the size at 20 °C. This paper discusses the variety of standard temperatures that were in use before that date, the efforts of C.E. Johansson to meet these variations, and the effort by the National Bureau of Standards to bring the United States to the eventual world standard.

Uncertainty and Dimensional Calibrations.

The calculation of uncertainty for a measurement is an effort to set reasonable bounds for the measurement result according to standardized rules. Since every measurement produces only an estimate of the answer, the primary requisite of an uncertainty statement is to inform the reader of how sure the writer is that the answer is in a certain range. This report explains how we have implemented these rules for dimensional calibrations of nine different types of gages: gage blocks, gage wires, ring gages, gage balls, roundness standards, optical flats indexing tables, angle blocks, and sieves.

Drift Eliminating Designs for Non-Simultaneous Comparison Calibrations.

The effects of drift on calibrations carried out by comparison have been studied at the National Institute of Standards and Technology for many years, and a number of strategies have been introduced to combat these effects. One strategy, the use of comparison designs which are inherently immune to linear drift, was developed specifically for mass comparison measurements. These techniques, developed for simultaneous comparisons, are extended to the case of non-simultaneous comparisons, such as gage block calibrations, where each artifact is measured separately, and the comparison is made mathematically from the individual measurements.