HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Precision engineering is a subdiscipline of electrical engineering, software engineering,
electronics engineering Electronics engineering is a sub-discipline of electrical engineering which emerged in the early 20th century and is distinguished by the additional use of active components such as semiconductor devices to amplify and control electric current ...
,
mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, an ...
, and
optical engineering Optical engineering is the field of science and engineering encompassing the physical phenomena and technologies associated with the generation, transmission, manipulation, detection, and utilization of light. Optical engineers use optics to solve ...
concerned with designing machines, fixtures, and other structures that have exceptionally low
tolerances Engineering tolerance is the permissible limit or limits of variation in: # a physical dimension; # a measured value or physical property of a material, manufactured object, system, or service; # other measured values (such as temperature, hum ...
, are repeatable, and are stable over time. These approaches have applications in machine tools, MEMS, NEMS, optoelectronics design, and many other fields.


Overview

Professors Hiromu Nakazawa and Pat McKeown provide the following list of goals for precision engineering: # Create a highly precise movement. # Reduce the dispersion of the product's or part's function. # Eliminate fitting and promote assembly, especially automatic assembly. # Reduce the initial cost. # Reduce the running cost. # Extend the life span. # Enable the design safety factor to be lowered. # Improve interchangeability of components so that corresponding parts made by other factories or firms can be used in their place. # Improve quality control through higher machine accuracy capabilities and hence reduce scrap, rework, and conventional inspection. # Achieve a greater wear/fatigue life of components. # Make functions independent of one another. # Achieve greater miniaturization and packing densities. # Achieve further advances in technology and the underlying sciences.Venkatesh, V. C. and Izman, Sudin, ''Precision Engineering'', Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited, 2007, page 6.


Technical Societies

*
American Society for Precision Engineering The American Society for Precision Engineering is a non-profit member association, founded in 1986, dedicated to advancing the arts, sciences and technology of precision engineering, to promote its dissemination through education and training, and i ...

euspen - European Society for Precision Engineering and Nanotechnology

JSPE- The Japan Society for Precision Engineering

DSPE - Dutch Society for Precision Engineering

SPETA - Singapore Precision Engineering and Technology Association


See also

*
Abbe error Abbe error, named after Ernst Abbe, also called sine error, describes the magnification of angular error over distance. For example, when one measures a point that is 1 meter away at 45 degrees, an angular error of 1 degree corresponds to a positi ...
*
Accuracy and precision Accuracy and precision are two measures of ''observational error''. ''Accuracy'' is how close a given set of measurements (observations or readings) are to their ''true value'', while ''precision'' is how close the measurements are to each other ...
* Flexures *
Kinematic coupling Kinematic coupling describes fixtures designed to exactly constrain the part in question, providing precision and certainty of location. A canonical example of a kinematic coupling consists of three radial v-grooves in one part that mate with thre ...
* Measurement uncertainty * Kinematic determinacy


References


External links


''Precision Engineering'', the Journal of the International Societies for Precision Engineering and Nanotechnology
{{Authority control Mechanical engineering
Precision Engineering Centre at Cranfield UniversityHistory of Precision Engineering