Developing an Integrated Curriculum in Metrology for a Mechanical Engineering Technology Program

The Purdue College of Technology statewide location in Columbus, Indiana has partnered with Cummins Inc. over the past several years to develop a metrology lab on the campus in Columbus. In conjunction with this effort, faculty of the Mechanical Engineering Technology program is continuing to make progress in developing an integrated curriculum to support the new lab. The curriculum is integrated since new classes and laboratory activities have been blended into the existing Bachelor of Science degree program in Mechanical Engineering Technology. Industry in the greater region surrounding Columbus is heavily weighted toward manufacturing and the metrology lab and curriculum development has received positive responses from many companies throughout the region.An existing freshman-level class has been modified, maintaining its current core learning objectives, by emphasizing the geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) aspects of the class. Companies often use GD&T in the manufacturing of products so a good understanding of topics such as circularity, parallelism, perpendicularity, cylindricity, and runout is necessary. And these characteristics of parts can only be inspected utilizing measurement techniques developed in the metrology lab and then applied to real parts.A sophomore-level class is under development with the title of “Dimensional Metrology”. This class serves as an introduction to tools used in dimensional measurement: micrometers, vernier calipers, height gages, coordinate measurement machines, and optical methods of measurement. Other subjects introduced during the class are statistical techniques, particularly gage repeatability and reproducibility studies, calibration using gage blocks, surface measurement, measurement by comparison, and pneumatic measurement.Two upper division classes have already been developed and offered to students in the MET program. The first was “Inspection and Validation of Product Design”, and the second was titled “Measurement Systems Analysis”. The first course extended the objectives and outcomes of the freshman-level course by completing a full study of GD&T and using the CMM to investigate parallelism, perpendicularity, and flatness. The second course focuses on evaluating a measurement system using statistical methods such as gage R&R studies. A capstone metrology reverse engineering assignment completes the class.