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NIST In Your Car |
Mass production of cars that can compete in the marketplace requires hundreds of NIST-provided calibration and reference tools that auto makers use to keep their own measuring equipment and procedures accurate and precise. |
If you knew how many
measurements it took to put together the car in your garage, your head would spin. So
don't think about such things while you are driving. The
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) conducts research and provides
measurement services that underpin many stages of auto manufacturing--from the production
of basic materials like sheet metal for body panels to monitoring
the final quality of the vehicle assembly. NIST work extends beyond the car itself to the
automotive infrastructure, including 1) the accuracy of gas pumps at filling stations, 2)
the composition of fuel and oil, the production of roadway materials, and 3) the strength,
durability, and earthquake resistance of bridge materials and construction techniques.
NIST researchers also are working toward better welding technology for metal-intensive
industries like automotive manufacturing.
Much of NIST's support to auto manufacturers comes in the form of calibration services for maintaining the accuracy and precision of factory floor measuring instruments. Evaluated data sets are another form of NIST support. These data sets serve as the most reliable benchmarks with which many types of physical and chemical measurements can be compared. In addition to calibration services and evaluated data sets, auto manufacturers purchase about 350 different NIST Standard Reference Materials---the equivalents of certified "rulers" that companies use to check the accuracy of their measurements. These SRMs support the production of steel, metals, glass, solder, paint, fasteners, bearings, lights, wheels, tires, transmission gears, drive trains, ignition and wiring systems, emission controls, air conditioning and hydraulic systems, fuel, oil and highway cement. Without the many measurement anchors that NIST provides to industries such as the automotive industry, the long-term reliability of measurements could be maintained only by a large expenditure of human and financial resource by each industry, or even by each individual factory. In the end, however, even that effort would fall victim to the lack of standardization. In time, one supplier's 100 centimeters could be an end user's 101 centimeters. And that would be the kiss of death to mass manufacturing. In addition to measurement support, NIST now is helping to push automotive manufacturing technology forward via the Advanced Technology Program. Among the active projects are the development of new lightweight composite materials for potentially replacing heavier metal components and a multicompany focused program whose aim is to reduce quality-killing variations in the assembly process. |