BTM2133 METROLOGY

CHAPTER 7

Angle measurement
 OVERVIEW
• From division of the circle, all of angular
measurement is derived and provable.
• Angle deal with direction–not space.
• Angle is a relationship between two lines.
• We can measure this relationship if we extend the
lines until they intersect.
• The intersection is called the vertex, and the lines
are sides.
Overview
 Overview
• Right angle - one-fourth of circle or one
quadrant.
• Acute angle - an angle measures less than
90º.
• Obtuse angle - an angle measure more
than 90º.
Overview
 Angle Measurement

• The instrument for angle measurement are

equivalent to those for linear measurements
and range from simple scaled instrument to
highly sophisticated types using
interferometry.
 Angle Measurement
• Interferometry is a family of techniques in
which waves, usually electromagnetic,
are superimposed in order to extract
information about the waves.
 Equivalent Instruments

The angular measurement instruments closely approximate their

linear measurement equivalents.
 Protractor

• For measuring angles, the simple protractor is equivalent

to the rule for measuring length.
• Like a steel rule, the simple protractor has limited use.
• But mechanical additions to the rule resulted in the
versatile combination square (e.g: vernier caliper &
height gage).
• We make similar modifications on the simple protractor,
we get universal bevel protractor.
Universal bevel protractor
 Universal bevel protractor
• The heart of this instrument is a dial (graduated in degrees).
• Grouped into four 90º quadrants.
• The degrees are numbered to read either way: from zero to
90, the back to a zero, which is opposite the zero you started
at.
• The vernier scale is divided into 24 spaces, 12 on each side
of zero, numbered 60-0-60.
• The difference between one vernier division and two dial
division is 1/12 degree or 5 minutes.
• When angle is an exact degree, the zero graduations of the
vernier and the two 60-minute graduations line up with dial
division.
Universal bevel protractor

The degree scales

 Degree are read
directly, but minutes
are read with vernier
scale

Care must be used to

read the minutes from
the correct pair of lined-
up graduation.
Application of vernier protractor
• We can determine the angle or degrees in any
arc with the universal bevel protractor.
• When protractor is set at 90, (figure B), all four
angles are as read.
• If you turn the blade counterclockwise (figure A)
which happens in two position as shown.
• If you turn the blade clockwise(figure C), the
angle read will be formed only in two places,
which are always from the blade to the base
rotating clockwise.
When reading from 90º, these are positions where the angle and its
supplement are found. When reading from 90º, there is little danger of
confusing the angle and its supplement.
Errors when using bevel protractor
 The level
• One of the most useful measurement instruments
is the level.
• These ‘bubble instrument’ are widely use in
engineering metrology.
• For precision measurement:
– Precision levels
– Clinometers
– Theodolites
• Use in the shop (less precision measurement):
–Bench level
–Mechanic’s level
 Theodolite
Precision level Clinometer

Mechanic’s level level

Bench level
 Spirit level
• To keep the level from freezing, the tubes were filled
with ‘spirit of wine’ which led to the term spirit.
• The precision of a level depends in the curvature of
the glass tube.
• Cheap levels have a bent tube, but precision level
have straight tube that are internally ground to the
desired result.
• The larger the radius of the tube, the greater the
sensitivity(the same for a level and are designated
by the discrimination of the instrument).
Spirit level
Spirit level
Spirit level
 Thermal error
• Temperature affects levels-shrinking the bubble inside the
tube.
• Like other high-implication instruments, a high sensitivity level
is calibrated at the standard temperature ( 20 ºC or 68 ºF).
• When the level is warmed, the liquid expands, reducing the
length of the bubble making the reading smaller than true
value.
• Sensitivity also depends on the viscosity of the fluid in the vial.
• Level filled with low viscosity liquids have high vapor pressure
which can result in some erratic readings when the vial is
heated.
 Reading level
The centered position is marked by long
graduations-or sometimes a dot at each end.

The readings are the number of divisions that the bubble moves.
Level adjustment
 Disadvantage of level
There are four principal disadvantage of
levels:
1. General ignorance about their proper
use and application.
2. The time required to settle down.
3. Their single sensitivity characteristic.
4. They do not produce any output that can
be used as loading for a measurement
system.
 Clinometer
• The block level is restricted to relatively
small angles.
• This restriction is removed in the
clinometer.
• It is a level mounted in a frame so that the
frame may be turned at any desired angle
to the horizontal reference.
 Clinometer

A few of many types of clinometers

 Trigonometric functions
• The trigonometric functions, formed by the
sides of triangles.
• For elementary angle computation, we
simply use the natural functions:
–Sine
–Cosine
–Tangent
 Sine bar
• The sine bar, a steel bar that has a cylinder near each
end, forms a hypotenuse.
• The instrument is designed with a distance between
the cylinder that make computation easy.
• When one of the cylinders is resting on a surface, you
can set the bar at any desired angle by simply raising
the second cylinder.
• You obtain the desired angle when the height
difference between the cylinder id equal to the sine
angle multiplied by the distance between the centers
of the cylinders.
The sine bar is a hypotenuse of triangle frozen in steel
with a length selected to minimize computations.
 Comparison measurement using sine bar

• We use gage blocks for measurement of angles with

high amplification instrumentation and measure by
comparison.
• The sine bar is used to construct an angle equal to
angle that we need to measure, but the constructed
angle is in opposite direction of the actual angle.
• Part is supported by sine bar.
• The deviation can be detected by measuring the
parallelism between the part feature and the reference
surface (using dial indicator).
Sine blocks, sine plates and sine tables

• Sine blocks are wide sine bar

(a sine instrument wide enough to stand
unsupported).
• Sine plates are wider sine blocks.
(a sine instrument rest on an integral base).
• Sine tables are still wider.
(a sine instrument is an integral part of another
device, such as machine tool).
Sine Tables
Mechanical angle measurement
• Another method of angle measurement, called
mechanical indexing and its related tools.
–The dividing head, indexing head or index head
• Were developed specifically for machining rather
than measurement.
• This devices were originally developed to divide
circles into equal division.
• Because the circle is the standard for angles, any
division of a circle is angle measurement, whether
we measure it in numbers of division or degrees or
minutes.
Mechanical angle measurement
• There are three principal classes of index
head.
–Dial index head
–Plain index head
–Universal
 Dial index head
• It consist of horizontal spindle mounted
on the base that rests on a reference
surface.
• On one end of the spindle is a plate for
clamping part.
• The other end is a wheel for turning the
spindle.
• The plate which also an index plate,
contains holes with a plunger that
engages the stationary housing.
• The typical plate has 24 holes, which
provides 360º rotation in 15º increment.
Any Question??

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