Precision engineering
Precision engineering is a subdiscipline of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and optical engineering concerned with designing machines, fixtures, and other structures that have exceptionally high tolerances, are repeatable, and are stable over time. These approaches have applications in machine tools, MEMS, optomechanical design, and many other fields.
A fundamental principle in precision engineering is that of determinism. System behavior is fully predictable even to nanometer-scale motions.
"The basic idea is that machine tools obey cause and effect relationships that are within our ability to understand and control and that there is nothing random or probabilistic about their behavior. Everything happens for a reason and the list of reasons is small enough to manage." - Jim Bryan
"By this we mean that machine tool errors obey cause-and-effect relationships, and do not vary randomly for no reason. Further, the causes are not esoteric and uncontrollable, but can be explained in terms of familiar engineering principles." - Bob Donaldson (LLNL)
See also
Technical Societies
- American Society for Precision Engineering
- euspen - European Society for Precision Engineering and Nanotechnology