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L a b o ra t o ry 1
Engineering Measurement
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Objectives
Students are required to understand the principles and the use of engineering
measurements by employing different measuring tools and methods in order to suit
the desired applications.
To understand the meaningful of the measured values in engineering applications.
1. Literature Review
1.3 The significance of engineering measurement
Historically, measurement was invented by human in order to facilitate their life in the
society; for example, measuring of their body sizes for costume tailoring, weighing of food and
commercialdizes as well as locating places or telling distance for commuting, etc. The linear
measurement was first invented by the Egyptian called the Egyptian Royal Cubit, which was used in
construction and agricultural at the time. The most well-known evidence is the record found in the
Palermo stone showing the height of the flooding along the Nile River. Moreover, body parts were
normally used as references to give dimensions, for example, finger, hand, arm and foot as shown in
fig. 1.
corrected and meaningful values. Apart from 1-dimensional measurement, there are also 2dimensional and 3-dimensional measurements, which are depending on particular applications. This
is for example, measuring of the diameter and the length of structural steel rod or 3-dimensional
measurement of cast products. The precision of the measured values relies on the specific used which
required different levels of accuracy along with the measuring tools or devices utilized.
Universal measuring units can be referred from different system such as Imperial system,
Metric system and International System of Unit (SI). Imperial unit (English unit) was first developed
in Britain and covering the commonwealth countries as well as in the United State. The Imperial
system is currently replaced by the Metric system. However, several measuring units still remain in
use, for example, yard, mile or ounce, pound and ton. Table 1 illustrates the Imperial system which
can be converted into the Metric system.
The Metric system is mainly expressed in meter and gram such as distance and weight
measurement or electrical properties. The main advantage of the Metric system is that it consists of
the single base unit, which can be practically converted into many different units for measuring the
physical or mechanical properties. For instance, the length measuring unit can be expressed in
micron, millimeter, meter, or kilometer when multiplying by the factor of power of ten. For example,
the values in meter are multiplied by 10-3 and 103 are to achieve the units of millimeter and kilometers
respectively.
The SI unit was abbreviated from the French terms called Systme International d'Units,
which is now well-known for everyday uses as well as engineering and science. The SI unit was
developed from the Metric system and other units which have not been included in the Metric system
are now added. The SI unit comprises of 4 basic unit, which are as follows
1. Meter, m, which is the unit of length
2. Second, s, which is the unit of time
3. Kilogram, kg, which is the unit of mass
4. Kelvin, K, which is the unit of temperature
a) Dial caliper
b) Digital caliper
wikimedia.org
www.design-technology.org/micrometer.jpg
Figure 6: Micrometers
To begin the measurement, zero position of the reading scale is required before placing an
object in between the measuring rods. Locking the position using the retainer as the measurement is
taken. For reading in a metric scale, the spindle has two threads for 1 millimeter. The reading scale
on the barrel is graduated with 1 millimeter divisions and 0.5 millimeter subdivisions. The thimble
has 50 graduations each being 0.01 millimeter. Therefore, the measured value can be read as the
number of division displayed on the barrel plus the particular division visible on the thimble which
coincides with the axial line on the barrel. For example, as shown in fig 8 a), five divisions on the
barrel plus one subdivision can be read on the barrel. On the thimble, twenty eight graduations are
inline with the straight line on the barrel. This means the measured value is 5 + 0.5 + 0.28 = 5.78
millimeters. Fig. 8 b) show a more precision reading with the third decimal horizontally displayed on
the vernier above the main scale. In such a case, the reading can be taken as 5 + 0.5 + 0.28 + 0.003 =
5.783 millimeters.
wikipedia.org
Thimble = 0.28
Thimble = 0.28
Total = 5.78 mm
Vernier = 0.003
Total
= 5.783 mm
The tips of the probe are in various size and shape depending on their applications. The small
sphere tip provides consistent measurement as it moves along an arc while the size of the tip can be
varied to allow measuring a small hole. A flat tip is also used depending on the required applications.
However the contact angle of the tip must be 90o against the object surface, if not the correction factor
is needed.
surface roughness measurement, the probe is conducted to travel along a 2D area on the surface as
shown in fig. 11 c).
misutoyo
Figure 10: Roughness testing machine.
wikipedia.org
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wikipedia.org
b) A sketch showing the probe travelling on a straight line along the surface (2D measurement).
3d-shape.com
c) A 3D roughness profile
Figure 11: Measuring the surface roughness.
There are various roughness parameters such as Ra, Rz , Rq , Rks, each of which reduce all of
the information derived from the roughness profile in to one single number. The most commonly
used parameter is Ra. These values are greatly influenced by how the raw profile data is filtered and
how the mean line is calculated. By convention, any capital R with a subscript is used to represent 2D
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roughness parameters whereas any capital S with a subscript is used for 3D roughness parameter.
Table 1 summarizes 2D roughness parameters together with its description and formula.
Table 1: 2D roughness parameters
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4. Results
4.1 Dimensional measurement (Drawing No.1)
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5. Discussion
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6. Conclusions
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7. Questions
7.1 For measuring the dimensions of the machined parts, the thickness of the paper and the
displacement of the beam during defection, which measuring technique you would like to
employ? Explain in each case in details.
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7.2 From roughness experimental result, please indicate which samples would provide better
fatigue performance. Give reason.
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8. References
8.1 Dieter, G.E., Mechanical metallurgy, 1988, SI metric edition, McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0-07100406-8.
8.2 www.wikipedia.org
8.3 www.mitutoyo.com
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