At Warren Knight, we’ve been a leading manufacturer of precision equipment for more than a century, including high-precision metrology equipment. We also can provide you with expert metrology services, including NIST traceable calibration. Let’s dive in and discuss metrology as well as our instruments and services.
What Is Metrology? What Is The Job Of A Metrologist?
Metrology is the science that pertains to the study of measurement, both the theoretical aspects of measurement and the practical aspects of establishing traceable standards and ensuring measurement accuracy. For many of our clients, metrology relates to the industrial aspects of quality control, calibration, and compliance with international standards such as ISO 17025.
A metrologist often is tasked with practical applications of metrology, including:
- Instrument calibration services
- Creating and maintaining calibration schedules for equipment
- Developing measurement procedures and protocols for complex systems
- Analyzing measurement uncertainty for audits and regulatory compliance
- Inspecting manufactured parts against drawing or CAD models
- Supporting production teams by ensuring that measurement systems are maintained & aligned
- Training technicians on proper measurement techniques and calibration
In general, there are several types of metrologists: dimensional, electrical, optical, thermal, and theoretical. The first four typically handle the practical aspects of metrology, while theoretical metrologists often work in national labs, such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology, or NIST, where they develop, establish, and maintain standards of measurement.
Metrology plays a huge role in commerce, as there needs to be an international system of measurements in order to ensure consistency, accuracy, and fairness in trade across borders. For instance, if one country sets different standards as to what constitutes a unit of measurement, such as a kilogram, this can undermine international trade by creating discrepancies in quantities, making quality assurance difficult to enforce.
What Are The Three Types of Metrology?
There are three basic applications of metrology, including scientific metrology, which, as described above, sets international standards for measurement. Industrial metrology is when those standards are applied to production, and legal metrology is a branch of metrology that ensures that the standards being set are fair and enforceable in regard to commerce.
What Are The 7 Types of Measuring Devices & Equipment?
In general, metrology equipment can be broken down into seven different groupings, and we produce a variety of these items at Warren Knight. Here’s a quick summary of the different types of equipment that might fall under the guise of metrology.
Dimensional Measuring Instruments
These are often used in manufacturing, machining, and quality control, and include simple devices such as rulers and tape measures, as well as precision measurement tools such as micrometers and calipers. These metrology tools can be used for tasks such as checking tolerances and verifying part dimensions, etc.
Temperature Measuring Devices
A thermal metrologist would use instruments such as infrared thermometers, thermal imaging cameras, resistance temperature detectors, and other devices to measure thermal conditions in different environments, materials, or processes. This could occur in a laboratory setting or an industrial setting, or even out in the field, evaluating environmental conditions.
Pressure & Vacuum Measuring Instruments
These devices, including barometers, manometers, and vacuum gauges, can measure the force exerted by gases or liquids as well as the absence of pressure. This can be used for pneumatic equipment and hydraulic systems as well as for monitoring the weather.
Electrical Measuring Instruments
Whenever you need to measure certain electrical properties, including voltage, current, power, and resistance, these instruments can help. Applicable devices include multimeters, oscilloscopes, frequency counters, and wattmeters, and the uses include quality control in production lines, electronics manufacturing, electrical system testing, and more.
Mass & Weight Measuring Devices
Mass or weight must be precisely measured in many commercial trade operations, but it also applies to research in laboratories as well as other settings where weight or mass must be measured precisely. Many types of scales and balances can be used for these purposes.
Time & Frequency Measuring Devices
These devices can range from simple handheld devices such as stopwatches to more complicated devices such as frequency counters, chronometers, and oscillators. Time and frequency measurements are crucial in a wide range of industries, as well as for telecommunications and scientific research, not to mention applications such as sporting events or just general time management.
Specialized & Optical Measurement Devices
These instruments are designed to measure specific physical properties or to provide non-contact, high-precision measurements. Examples include flow meters, autocollimators, an alignment telescope, spectrophotometers, and laser interferometers. These devices are commonly used for tasks such as alignment, optical calibration, and specialized manufacturing, as well as in metrology labs where extremely high accuracy is required.
Our Metrology Equipment
At Warren Knight, we can provide you with a variety of metrology tools, including a micrometer, collimator, alignment telescopes and much more. We also manufacture digital protractors and clinometers. Our navigation, position, and alignment equipment is designed for aviators, navigators, surveyors, and for military applications, as well as for alignment, measuring, and calibration tasks.
For instance, if you need an inclinometer, we manufacture optical clinometers, pendulum clinometers, vernier clinometers, scale ball clinometers, a digital clinometer, and drum clinometers. Our WK-23-1190 Optical Clinometer offers a 360-degree operating range reading to either 10 seconds or to one second, and can be used either vertically or horizontally. This device has accessories, including a clinometer worktable, an auto-collimating mirror, an optical clinometer support, and an LED clinometer illuminator.
While we have a large selection of instruments listed on our website, not all of our products are displayed online. If you don’t see the precise instrument you need, feel free to contact us at any time, as we may have the item in stock or be able to provide you with a custom design that meets all of your requirements.
Our Metrology Services
We provide NIST-traceable calibration and repair services to MIL-STD-456621 and ANSI 540-3. We offer a 24-hour calibration turnaround and can provide repairs and calibration for any optical, mechanical alignment, leveling or angle measuring instrument.
At Warren Knight, our goal is to provide quality instrument calibration services for a variety of clients with unique needs and budgets. As such, we offer three certification classes, including:
- Basic Certification without readings
- Readings provided after calibration is performed
- Our highest level – Readings are provided before and after calibration
Additionally, if your equipment is being serviced, we can rent you replacement options to ensure that your operation stays up and running. Many clients also rent our equipment for special projects, rather than commit to purchasing equipment. Of course, if you do rent an item and like the instrument, we offer a rental plan purchase.
Warren Knight – Aligning The World For 100+ Years
If you need any type of metrology equipment, Warren Knight has been a leading supplier of precision instruments since 1908. Again, not every instrument or system we manufacture is listed on our website, so contact us at any time to ask about our products or to receive a cost quote for our instruments or calibration services.