Inside IALR

Measuring Down to the Micron: How Metrology Supports National Defense

• Institute for Advanced Learning and Research

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In this episode of Inside IALR, we dive deep into the world of metrology, a crucial trade that plays a significant role in national defense manufacturing. The episode features Tony Almeida, Regional Sales Manager at Mitutoyo, and Jarrod Hankins, Metrology Instructor at IALR's Accelerated Training in Defense Manufacturing (ATDM) program. 

Metrology is the science of measurement. It ensures that parts are manufactured with incredible precision, often down to microns. Together, they highlight how metrology ensures that parts used in defense manufacturing, particularly in the Navy’s shipbuilding and repair operations, meet the highest standards of quality.

Episode Highlights 

  • 0:47 - What is metrology, and how is it used in manufacturing?
  • 3:09 - The role of IALR’s precision metrology lab in supporting the Navy's Additive Manufacturing Center
  • 6:56 - Key metrology tools, from calipers to 3D laser scanning
  • 8:36 - Inside the precision metrology lab: The significance of the Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM)
  • 17:04 - The importance of calibration and ensuring precision in every tool
  • 22:06 - How metrology helps support the national defense industrial base

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Caleb Ayers:

Welcome to another episode of Inside IALR. Thanks for joining us today. So we have a fun one today about metrology, which before I started working here I had absolutely no idea what that was, and I will say that I know a little bit more about it today than I did before I started working here. So we have Tony Almeida, who is the regional sales manager in the southeast for Mitutoyo, and then we have Jared Hankins, who is one of our metrology instructors here for the ATDM program. So thank you guys for being here. I appreciate it. I'm going to start it off simple. Well, you guys can take it and run with it and make it as simple or not simple as you want, but what is metrology?

Tony Almeida:

By definition, metrology is a science of measurement. Everything that is made has to be measured okay for fit function, make sure it doesn't fail, and metrology is just the way we measure these parts. I'm sure Jared has some to add.

Jarrod Hankins:

Well, for metrology. You know a lot of people look at that and it's part of QC, so it's quality control. So in our world we're dimensional inspections. So anytime that a machine shop or operations manufactures a part or a component, we have to inspect that part because we're the last line of defense before it gets shipped off to the customer. So we're measuring these parts to precise measurements using precision measuring tools and coordinate measuring machines. And when you think about the accuracy, you know you look at the human hair has an average of three thousandths diameter and if you were to split that 30 times, we can easily achieve that in our measurement process.

Caleb Ayers:

Wow, very precise, to say the least Important question here. Can you break down what is the difference between metrology and meteorology, or is there a difference?

Tony Almeida:

There's quite a big difference, so we do get that a lot.

Jarrod Hankins:

One thing you know the weathermen can be off. They can be wrong several times. Where we can't Only several times. Weekly. So when I look at that, you know, a lot of my students come in and they see metrology and they think it's the study of weather and it's not In our world, it's dimensional inspection. So looking at that, I usually crack the joke and say, yeah, you know, weathermen can be wrong. We can't. We have a lot more consequences for it.

Caleb Ayers:

I'll remember that one. So for those listening I guess I should explain why you two are the ones that are here. So Mitutoyo runs a lot of the operations in the precision metrology lab here in our Center for Manufacturing Advancement. So that lab contributes to a Navy project where they are inspecting parts for the US Navy as they're basically developing recipes for how to use additive manufacturing to make these parts. The metrology lab is the last line that inspects those parts to make sure those measurements are good.

Caleb Ayers:

And I know you all are involved in multiple steps of that process, not just at the end, and we can get to that. And then Jared is an instructor for ATDM, which trains people in five different tracks and metrology is one of them to basically go work in the companies that make parts and maintain parts for ships and submarines. So both of those things happening on our campus I know you guys, um, are coming at this from different angles of. You know jared, you'd be on the, you being on the training, um, and tony, you being with more of the. You know the sales and the, the maintenance side of it. But it's very, it's very, very interesting field and very, as you said, very, very precise work that you all do so, I guess, tell me a little bit about your both of you, for both of you. Tell me a little bit about your career background and how you got to be involved in metrology, like what, what?

Tony Almeida:

led you to this. I was 19 years old, working as an auto mechanic. It was a time where leases came out and they were very good leases no money down, very low payments. So the garage I was working with laid me off and my dad at the time was looking in newspaper. That's how he found jobs back then. It was newspaper ads and he saw where it said caliper repairman wanted so I'm thinking it was bench work, calipers, alternators, you know, starters, stuff like that. I said I think I can do that and my dad came with me. Um, god bless him he's no longer with us.

Tony Almeida:

But we went to this beautiful place in Paramus, new Jersey. We walk into the showroom and I see measuring calipers and micrometers and I said you know, dad, I don't think this is what we thought. He says it's okay, let's give it a shot, see what happens. I interviewed with my boss back then and wound up getting a job and the job was fixing calipers and micrometers and height gauges and indicators. And as I started getting into it, man, I really liked the precision of it. I mean, you had to be pretty much perfect, right. And it just grew with me and I stayed with Mitutoyo. Been there now 39 years and from there just grew with the company and fell in love with metrology.

Jarrod Hankins:

Well, for myself, it started at a young age. You know I always like to take things apart and see how they worked and functioned together, and when I graduated high school I was more into the carpentry side of it and reading blueprints and establishing that mindset geared me to go to Danville Community College and take precision machining and that led me to BWX in Lynchburg, virginia. So I started off as a machinist and with several years in the manufacturing side, I transitioned over to metrology or QC and I was actually sent back to ATDM myself and took the metrology course and acquired a lot of certifications in metrology and that led me to the position that I'm in now. So I've always had a manufacturing background. I've got about 18 years manufacturing background, as far as you know, for BWX and I really enjoy it.

Caleb Ayers:

I did not know that you went through the ATDM program as a student. Yes, so you are as far. Are there four of you, or are there more?

Jarrod Hankins:

There's only one right now, one metrology student.

Caleb Ayers:

Well, but I mean four that have gone through, four instructors that have gone through the ATDM program Awesome, michaela Baker in welding and then there's two in additive. Both of the additive manufacturing instructors went through ATDM as students as well. Yeah, that's really cool. And for you guys, what do you see as kind of and I mean you were talking about micrometers and some of those different tools what are kind of the primary tools of the trade in metrology? What are those things that you all are using and are training students on?

Jarrod Hankins:

It depends from one place of manufacturing to another. Depends on what you're inspecting. You can have basic dimensional inspections using calipers and micrometers, test indicators, dial indicators, height stands, gauge blocks, gauge pins, and then you can go into the bridge CMM. So you're actually programming the CMM to take away the human contact of it and CMM stands for coordinate measuring machine right, yeah, coordinate measuring machine.

Jarrod Hankins:

So I teach my students all of it. We teach them from the ground up manual dimensional inspections and then we move into the Coordinate Measuring Machine and teach them how to program and operate the CMM. From there we move to portable CMMs and 3D laser scanning, portable cmms and 3d laser scanning, so we can actually laser, 3d laser scan a component and compare it to a cad model for inspection. Um, the ferro laser tracker, you know we can inspect large objects. So they're the world of metrology. It is a various, it is a wide array of tools that you may see in manufacturing. It depends on what, what area that you go, you know, from shipbuilding to the nuclear industry. Qc is a broad range of jobs, to begin with, for the metrology lab here in the Center for Manufacturing Advancement.

Caleb Ayers:

I know one of the biggest selling points is the coordinate measuring machine that is in there. That's, as I understand it, one of the largest on the East Coast. So tell us a little bit about kind of some of the equipment that's in that lab and how you all use that to help both here for the Navy's Additive Manufacturing Center and then also to help other companies.

Tony Almeida:

Well, we've got an array of equipment over there. We have a surface roughness tester, we've got a contraor the hardness tester. We have a QV Apex, which is a vision machine, high magnification microscope. We have a profile projector or comparator. You have a roundness tester and then you have the Krista AV1630-12, which is that large CMM you see down there with a laser and a vision probe and a surface tester probe on there too. And then you have the 9108, which is a smaller machine, same family, just a smaller version of the CMM.

Tony Almeida:

So as far as the CMMs, you know, they bring in the 3D printed part, okay. Then they measure it right and then they go ahead and heat, treat it and do what they have to do after the measurements and then we measure it again and tell them what they've got to take off. They come back and then we do another final inspection. So, from my understanding, everything that is 3D printed over there comes to the lab at least three times. So the CMM is a big part of that, because it'll measure in three axes, it'll measure a lot faster, it'll do the GD&T for you.

Caleb Ayers:

What does that acronym mean?

Tony Almeida:

Geometrical Dimensioning and Tolerancing. Okay, so you can do that manually, and that's. Jared does teach that, which is something that I feel is very important for students to learn right. For me, it's like learning the theory. If you know the theory behind what you're trying to do, it's just much more easier to grasp and understand. So with the CMM, they'll go ahead and do those measurements and then, this way, when the part is finished, hopefully it's correct and it's not going to fail. You don't want a part failing out in the middle of the ocean, on the sub, you know. So that's where metrology comes in. It's very, very important.

Jarrod Hankins:

And when you look at the overall, to add to what he's saying, the theory aspect. So a topic like geometric dimensioning and tolerancing, there's two sides to that. So you have some people that understand the theory part of it and they can interpret it, but being able to apply it so it's two sides to that. So being able to interpret and apply GD&T to your inspection, it builds the foundation for you to understand what the CMM is doing for you. So instead of having a machine that is programmed by someone else and that machine inspects the part 100% and does a great job doing it, the troubleshooting part is where that comes into play. So if a problem happens or if it's a mistake that's made, you're able to catch that by having those troubleshooting foundational skills of understanding what it's doing for you.

Caleb Ayers:

And for those listening who don't know, atdm or Accelerated Training and Defense Manufacturing. Like we said, five tracks and metrology is one of them. It's welding, cnc machining, additive manufacturing, non-destructive testing. The students who are coming in, many of them don't have experience in these tracks. I would say most of them don't have previous experience in this. Jared, you are an exception coming in, I wouldn't say an exception. There are many students who come in with previous experience for upskilling, exactly like you did, and then there are many career seekers who come in with no previous experience. So, jared, for you, as you're instructing these students, you know you talked about you guys have talked about the balance of theory and application. How do you balance cramming all of that in this program that's four months, I mean that's a pretty quick turnaround time. How do you balance, kind of getting that theory, getting that hands-on and preparing these students for the jobs that come next?

Jarrod Hankins:

One way that I approach that is trying to balance out the classroom and actually lab time, so being able to have the students in the classroom and explain to them what they're doing. They are not going to grasp the concept completely until they actually put their hands on it and do it on their own. So we start off with the granite station and teach these students how to inspect dimensional inspections and geometric dimensioning and tolerance GD&T inspections manually. And they can apply that because once you, once you put your hands on it, the concept, the light bulb clicks that's the term that I like to see when you look around the room and you see a lot of confusion. And then when you go down to the lab and they get their hands on their measurement tools and the cmm and they start to understand what it's actually doing, the light bulb clicks and that starts that foundation to build on.

Caleb Ayers:

When you're talking about the tolerances and the precision that y'all are talking about, there's a lot of math involved, I'm assuming. Certainly Sounds like something I would not enjoy.

Jarrod Hankins:

A lot of calculations, a lot of math. My students have to be very versed in right angle trig, so we do a lot of trig Calculations. Have to be very versed in right angle trig, so we do a lot of trig. Calculations have to be perfect. You know, one calculation error you can. A cumulative error is bad enough. And then when you have calculation error on top of that, everything has some degree of tolerance. And with that in mind, when you're inspecting parts that people's lives are on the line whether you're making a nuclear reactor or something for a fighter jet all of those come into play. When you look at the importance of quality, we're the last people that touch that before it actually goes to the customer. So if we make a mistake it could be detrimental to a company or especially to somebody if they're using the product For both of y'all.

Caleb Ayers:

you all have done different jobs that involve metrology. Obviously, jared, now you're involved in training the next group, and Tony, you're more involved on the sales and industry side. But what kind of are the roles that are in the metrology field? Like is this? I guess, yeah, what are the roles that are available to, whether it be the students coming out of ATDM or for other companies? I mean, what are these roles? What industries are we talking about that metrology is involved in?

Tony Almeida:

Obviously in manufacturing right In any type of manufacturing. It could be plastic molding or injection molding to aerospace, to automotive, to medical device. So every industry, even bottle caps, right bottles, you know everything is checked Right To to make sure it's going to work. So as far as industries, it'll fit all industries it's going to work. So as far as industries, it'll fit all industries. So some of the roles could be a calibration technician okay, where there's a lot of calibration labs out there In ometology. You could be a calibration technician. You can be a service technician okay, where you can go ahead and do the calibration on these larger machines that you go out in the field for. You can be a CMM operator or just a metrologist as well, a quality manager I mean those type of jobs 100%.

Jarrod Hankins:

I mean I think you cover that very well. A lot of my students go into manufacturing, you know, especially for the submarine industrial base, inspecting parts from the machine shop additive manufacturing. Some of my students also go in to get more training from like the NDST or the non-destructive testing side of it, because NDT and quality control are under the same umbrella. It, because the NDT and quality control are under the same umbrella, but we just instead of us doing dimensional inspection, they do non-destructive testing, so being able to look inside of parts and inspecting, but also calibration techs. I've had students that are now at Michitoyo so they can calibrate the tools that we actually use on a daily basis in metrology.

Tony Almeida:

And they're nice jobs Air-conditioned room, clean environment you know who wouldn't want that.

Caleb Ayers:

How do you go about calibrating the equipment that you're using to measure? That sounds also like very precise and important work.

Tony Almeida:

So we have standards that are calibrated at a third party, usually NIST, so we'll have masters calibrated there and then we'll calibrate it in our own lab at Mitutoyo and then we are A2LA accredited. So we have procedures on how to use those standards, what measurements, what angles and what repeatability tests, probing tests. So we just follow procedures with calibrated artifacts.

Jarrod Hankins:

And to touch on that from our side, you know Mitch and Toyo, they go to another level of calibration. You know for actually the manufacturer of the tooling. For us, as QC inspectors, you know we have to check our tools for repeatability and to make sure they're calibrated on a daily basis. We use standards in the same fashion. I know in my class the first thing that I do when we start to measure is I give the class a fake ruler so I print off a lot of different rulers in their own paper and most people say that you know, I know how to use a tape measure, I know how to read a six inch ruler and they go around and measure several different parts and nobody gets the same answer because none of the rulers are the same. And then I can speak on the importance of calibration, that everybody's inch is the same inch that seems like that would be a memorable.

Caleb Ayers:

It is memorable experience there.

Jarrod Hankins:

When you get students, especially older students that have used tape measures and such for a long time, and when they cannot get accurate measurements, you know they start to get agitated, like I know what I'm doing. And when they compare the rulers to a standard or calibrated ruler or to somebody else's, they see the problem.

Caleb Ayers:

You guys have talked about math. You've talked about how you know there's a lot of trigonometry involved and a lot of you know you need to be able to understand what these theories are before you can actually apply them. I guess what are some of the other main skills that it's important for people who work in this field to have?

Jarrod Hankins:

One thing that I would say as far as from the education standpoint spatial visualization, being able to read a print. You know, in order to be a CMM programmer, a QC inspector, you have to be able to understand how to read and interpret a print. Being able to look at a 2D sheet of paper and visualize what the part should look like as a 3D object, that is one of the hardest concepts to learn. If you've never had to do it is to be able to look at what the part should be like by a sheet of paper or print just this weekend I was trying to build a swing set.

Caleb Ayers:

I'm glad that I had friends there who could help me read the blueprints, because that's not, that is not my strength, and obviously you guys are talking about blueprints that are much more important than a swing set. So is there anything that you guys really want to talk about that you feel like we haven't hit yet?

Jarrod Hankins:

I would like to reach out. You know, for our partners here at Michitoyo at the great job that they do of providing us with precision instruments and our CMMs. This service is awesome. They are great partners to have in this and they've helped us out a lot.

Tony Almeida:

Thank you, and I'd like to add the importance of what's going on here at the center. I can't tell you how many times I've been around. I've been around this country for 39 years, visiting many, many different types of industries. And the number one problem, can you guess? We don't have the talent, we can't find the people to run this product or run the CMM, or run this or run even a quality lab okay, machinists, they're having problems finding machinists. So what you guys are doing here is very, very, very important. I wish this was in every state 10 times over, because it's very much needed.

Tony Almeida:

I'm glad to see that many, many schools are now adopting this or trying to. I know we've sent many people here to the center that have reached out to Mitutoyo and we'll get in touch with Jeremiah or somebody here, or Troy or somebody, and see if we can set something up, because it's just something that is lacking in this country for a long, long time. I mean, there's just, you know, these kids don't have to go to college if they can't go to college or if they're not A students or they have problem with this type of school. Maybe they're good with their hands, you know. Maybe they're good with robotic type machines, you know. They need to understand that there's another path, and that's what you guys are providing is another path, a well-paid path. These jobs pay pretty good, you know. So I thank you guys for doing that.

Jarrod Hankins:

I see the importance also is supporting our submarine industrial base.

Jarrod Hankins:

You know I feel proud every day to come in and feel that I'm helping out as far as the deficiency that we have in workers in our defense industrial base, seeing students come in, that some are young and I've had students that were 18. I've had some students that were 72. And some people that would come in and just look for a career path change. Or some people that didn't want to necessarily go to a four-year college but learn a skill set. Didn't want to necessarily go to a four-year college but learn a skill set. And these skill sets are valuable to our country because whether you're going to be a machinist or a welder, quality control inspector, an additive manufacturer or even an NDT inspector, they all contribute to helping support our defense industrial base and using those skills. You know, as an American, we owe everything we have to our United States military and the people that have went and fought for the freedoms and the privileges that we have and I feel honored to be a part of a program that's supporting that.

Caleb Ayers:

Yeah, and I guess we didn't touch on that. But so much up top. But yeah, that these, these two programs are, you know, atdm is training the workforce and then the Additive Manufacturing Center of Excellence here and on our campus is, you know, basically in technology development, for how do you 3D print parts effectively? And that's what Mitutoyo is involved in, and just the interconnection between those two things happening on the same campus. You know those, I guess, yeah, contributions to our national defense, whether it be by providing workers so that companies who are making submarines can continue to make submarines, or whether it be providing, you know, recipes for how to use new manufacturing process so those companies can better make parts for ships and submarines. It's really cool to see all of that come together in one place and clearly, as you guys have outlined. You know, metrology is a really, really big, important part of that. So, yeah, thank you guys for being here today, thanks for helping show kind of.

Caleb Ayers:

You know what this field is and you know that's. I know it's the science of measurement. You know you started with that. That's when I started doing my research. When I first got here I was like, okay, science of measurement got it, but you guys have broken that, broken that down in a very interesting, simple way, so I really really appreciate that. Anything else to add before we go?

Tony Almeida:

thanks for having us. I enjoy coming here every time.