ME 401

MEASUREMENTS AND DATA EVALUATION

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Basic Concepts of Measurement Methods

After studying, students will be able to

• understand the importance of metrology
• appreciate the significance of inspection
• appreciate the concepts of accuracy and precision
• explain the objectives of metrology and measurements
• understand the general measurement concepts
• elucidate the different sources and types of errors
• compare the different types of measurements

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Basic Concepts of Measurement Methods
• Measurement is an act of assigning an accurate and precise value to a
physical variable. The physical variable then gets transformed into a
measured variable.

• Meaningful measurements require common measurement standards and

must be performed using them. These provide appropriate definitions of
parameters and protocols that enable standard measurements to be made
and also establish a common basis for comparing measured values.

• Measurements provide a basis for judgements about process information,

quality assurance, and process control. Another associated aspect is to
provide proper operation and maintenance of such a product/system.
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Basic Concepts of Measurement Methods

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Objectives of measurement
1. To ascertain that the newly developed components are comprehensively
evaluated and designed within the process, and that facilities possessing
measuring capabilities are available in the plant
2. To ensure uniformity of measurements
3. To carry out process capability studies to achieve better component
tolerances
4. To assess the adequacy of measuring instrument capabilities to carry out
their respective measurements
5. To ensure cost-effective inspection and optimal use of available facilities

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Objectives of measurement
6. To adopt quality control techniques to minimize scrap rate and rework
7. To establish inspection procedures from the design stage itself, so that the
measuring methods are standardized
8. To calibrate measuring instruments regularly in order to maintain accuracy
in measurement
9. To resolve the measurement problems that might arise in the shop floor
10. To design gauges and special fixtures required to carry out inspection
11. To investigate and eliminate different sources of measuring errors

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Metrology
• Metrology literally means science of measurements.

• Metrology also deals with establishing the units of measurements and

their reproduction in the form of standards, ascertaining the uniformity of
measurements, developing methods of measurement, analysing the
accuracy of methods of measurement, establishing uncertainty of
measurement, and investigating the causes of measuring errors and
subsequently eliminating them.

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ACCURACY AND PRECISION
• Accuracy is the degree of agreement of the measured dimension with its
true magnitude. It can also be defined as the maximum amount by which
the result differs from the true value or as the nearness of the measured
value to its true value, often expressed as a percentage.

• Precision is the degree of repetitiveness of the measuring process. It is

the degree of agreement of the repeated measurements of a quantity
made by using the same method, under similar conditions. In other
words, precision is the repeatability of the measuring process.

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ACCURACY AND PRECISION
• Accuracy gives information regarding how far the measured value is
with respect to the true value, whereas precision indicates quality of
measurement, without giving any assurance that the measurement is
correct.

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ACCURACY
• Accuracy of an instrument is always assessed in terms of error. The
instrument is more accurate if the magnitude of error is low.

• Two terms are associated with accuracy: sensitivity and consistency

1. When successive readings of the measured quantity obtained from the

measuring instrument are same all the time, the equipment is said to be
consistent.

2. The ratio of the change of instrument indication to the change of quantity

being measured is termed as sensitivity. Sensitivity is the ability of the
measuring equipment to detect small variations in the quantity being
measured.

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ACCURACY
Sensitivity

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 ACCURACY
• unnecessary use of a more sensitive instrument
for measurement than required is a disadvantage.

• Note that as the magnification increases, the

range of measurement decreases. Temperature
variations affect an instrument and more skill is
required to handle it.

• Range is defined as the difference between the

lower and higher values that an instrument is able
to measure.

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ACCURACY and COST
If the tolerance of a component is to
be measured, then the accuracy
requirement will normally be 10% of
the tolerance values.

Demanding high accuracy unless it is

absolutely required is not viable, as it
increases the cost of the measuring
equipment and hence the inspection

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Calibration of Measuring Instruments
• It is essential that the equipment/instrument used to measure a given
physical quantity is validated. The process of validation of the
measurements to ascertain whether the given physical quantity conforms
to the original/national standard of measurement is known as traceability
of the standard.

• Calibration is a means of achieving traceability. Calibration is the

procedure used to establish a relationship between the values of the
quantities indicated by the measuring instrument and the corresponding
values realized by standards under specified conditions.

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Calibration of Measuring Instruments
If the values of the variable involved remain constant (not time dependent)
while calibrating a given instrument, this type of calibration is known as static
calibration, whereas if the value is time dependent or time-based information is
required, it is called dynamic calibration.

Calibration is achieved by comparing the measuring instrument with the

following: (a) a primary standard, (b) a known source of input, and (c) a
secondary standard that possesses a higher accuracy than the instrument to be
calibrated.

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Calibration of Measuring Instruments
The standard that is used for calibration purpose should normally be one order of
magnitude more accurate than the instrument to be calibrated.

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 Systematic or Controllable Errors
• A systematic error is a type of error that deviates by a fixed amount from the
true value of measurement. These types of errors are controllable in both
their magnitude and their direction, and can be assessed and minimized if
efforts are made to analyze them.
• systematic errors cannot be eliminated by taking a large number of readings
and then averaging them out. These errors are reproducible inaccuracies that
are consistently in the same direction.
Minimization of systematic errors increases the accuracy of measurement.
The following are the reasons for their occurrence:
1. Calibration errors
2. Ambient conditions
3. Deformation of workpiece
4. Avoidable
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 Systematic or Controllable Errors
1. Calibration errors:
A small amount of variation from the nominal value will be present in the
actual length standards, as in slip gauges and engraved scales.
2. Ambient Conditions:
It is essential to maintain the ambient conditions at internationally accepted
values of standard temperature (20 ºC) and pressure (760 mmHg) conditions.
An increase in temperature of 1 ºC results in an increase in the length of C25
steel by 0.3 μm, and this is substantial when precision measurement is required.

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 Systematic or Controllable Errors
3. Deformation of Workpiece:
The stylus pressure applied during measurement affects the accuracy of
measurement.

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 Systematic or Controllable Errors
3. Avoidable errors:
Hertz’s formulae:

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 Systematic or Controllable Errors
3. Avoidable errors:
Datum errors
Reading errors
Errors due to parallax effect
Zero error

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 Systematic or Controllable Errors
3. Avoidable errors:
Alignment error/ Cosine error

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 Systematic or Controllable Errors
3. Avoidable errors:
Alignment error/ Abbe error
Abbe’s Principle of Alignment:
The scale of a linear measuring system should be collinear
with the spatial dimension or displacement to be measured
If this is not the case, the measurement must be corrected
for the associated Abbe Error.

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 Systematic or Controllable Errors
3. Avoidable errors:
Abbe’s Principle of Alignment:
Abbe Error = (Abbe offset)*(sine of angular misorientation)
❖Abbe Offset:
The distance between the desired point of measurement and the
reference line of the measuring system.

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 Random Errors
• Random errors provide a measure of random deviations when measurements
of a physical quantity are carried out repeatedly.
• When a series of repeated measurements are made on a component under
similar conditions, the values or results of measurements vary. Specific
causes for these variations cannot be determined, since these variations are
unpredictable and uncontrollable by the experimenter and are random in
nature.
• They are of variable magnitude and may be either positive or negative.
When these repeated measurements are plotted, they follow a normal or
Gaussian distribution. Random errors can be statistically evaluated, and their
mean value and standard deviation can be determined.
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 Random Errors
• Random errors can be statistically evaluated, and their mean value and
standard deviation can be determined.
• Random errors can be minimized by calculating the average of a large
number of observations.

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Systematic vs. Random Errors

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Overview

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Overview

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 Metrology
‘When you can measure what you are
speaking about and express it in numbers,
you know something about it; but when
you cannot measure it, when you cannot
express it in numbers, your knowledge of
it is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind. It
may be the beginning of knowledge, but
you have scarcely in your thought
Lord Kelvin (1824–1907),
advanced to the stage of science.’

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