American Society for Precision Engineering
Encyclopedia
The American Society for Precision Engineering is a non-profit member association, founded in 1986, dedicated to advancing the arts, sciences and technology of precision engineering
Precision engineering
Precision engineering is a subdiscipline of electrical engineering, electronics engineering, mechanical engineering, and optical engineering concerned with designing machines, fixtures, and other structures that have exceptionally low tolerances, are repeatable, and are stable over time...

, to promote its dissemination through education and training, and its use by science and industry.

Overview

The American Society for Precision Engineering (ASPE) focuses on many areas that are important in the research, design, development, manufacture and measurement of high accuracy components and systems. This collective discipline is known as Precision engineering, and includes precision controls, metrology
Metrology
Metrology is the science of measurement. Metrology includes all theoretical and practical aspects of measurement. The word comes from Greek μέτρον , "measure" + "λόγος" , amongst others meaning "speech, oration, discourse, quote, study, calculation, reason"...

, interferometry
Interferometry
Interferometry refers to a family of techniques in which electromagnetic waves are superimposed in order to extract information about the waves. An instrument used to interfere waves is called an interferometer. Interferometry is an important investigative technique in the fields of astronomy,...

, materials, materials processing, nanotechnology
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...

, optical fabrication, precision optics
Optics
Optics is the branch of physics which involves the behavior and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behavior of visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light...

, precision replication, scanning microscopes, semiconductor
Semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to electron flow intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. This means a conductivity roughly in the range of 103 to 10−8 siemens per centimeter...

 processing, standards and ultra-precision machining.

History

There has long been a "community" of precision engineers within the United States but a formal structure and common focus for the activities was lacking. This was not the case in Japan, as evidenced by the large and active Japanese Society of Precision Engineers. In November 1985, a joint US-Japanese meeting on precision engineering included a special session to discuss the possibility of forming an American Society. The enthusiasm of the participants and the overwhelming response to a subsequent questionnaire provided momentum. By November 1986, the American Society for Precision Engineering was incorporated and held its first Annual Meeting in Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...

. The theme of the well-attended meeting, "Thresholds in Precision Engineering," was reflected in 28 papers covering a broad spectrum of applications. At this meeting, a Board of Directors was elected with members drawn from industry, private laboratories, government and academia.

ASPE emphasizes the foundations necessary to achieve precision in any application and seeks to bring together practitioners from all of the related fields. The Annual Meeting, held each fall, presents topics spanning the field of precision engineering.

Conferences and Exhibitions

  • 24th Annual Meeting, Monterey, California
    Monterey, California
    The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...

    , October 2009
  • 25th Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia
    Atlanta, Georgia
    Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...

    , October/November 2010

Publications

The Society jointly publishes a peer-reviewed technical journal, Precision Engineering, in cooperation with its European and Japanese counterparts.

Lifetime Achievement Award

The American Society for Precision Engineering presents the ASPE Lifetime Achievement Award to individuals who have made significant contributions to the field of Precision Engineering.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK