READABILITY,CALIBRATION &

FLATNESS MEASUREMENT
 READABILITY
 Readability refers to the susceptibility of a
measuring device to having it’s indications
converted to a meaningful number .

 Readability is defined as the closeness with which

the scale of analog instrument can be read .

 Eg:A micrometer instrument can be made more

readable by using vernier .

 Very finely spaced lines may make a scale more

readable when a microscope is used , but for the
unaided eye , the readability is poor .
Contd…
 For getting better readability , the instrument
scale must be as high as possible . Then the
reader can observe the reading accurately.

 The size of the pointer also should be larger

with more accurate end conditions i.e, at the
end pointer should be sharp .Due to which the
parallax error is minimized .
 CALIBRATION
 Calibration is the process of determining and
adjusting an instrument’s accuracy to make sure its
accuracy is within the manufacturer’s specifications.
 If a known input is given to the measurement
system the output deviates from the given input,
the corrections are made in the instrument and then
the output is measured. This process is called
calibration.
 It is carried out by making adjustments such that
readout device produces zero output for zero
measurand input.
 ELEMENTS OF METROLOGY(SWIPE)
 1) Measuring Instruments
 2) Calibration Standards
 3) Work piece
 4) Person who is carrying out the measurement
 5) Environment
The above said five elements composed into the
acronym SWIPE.
Where, S —Standard
 W —Work piece
 I —Instrument
 P— Person
 E —Environment
 The factors affecting these five elements:

 1. Standard: - Affected by Temperature,

time, thermal expansion and elasticity.
 2. Work piece: - Surface finish, cleanliness,
supporting elements, and elastic properties.
 3. Instrument: - Friction, error. mechanical
parts.
 4. Person: - Ability to measure, training,
cost estimation.
 5. Environment: - Light. Temperature,
Humidity.
FLATNESS TESTING USING INTERFEROMETER
 The essential equipment for measurement by light wave interference
is a monochromatic light source and a set of optical flats.
 An optical flat is a circular piece of optical glass or fused quartz having
its two planes faces flat and parallel and the surfaces are finished to
an optical degree of flatness.
 If an optical flat placed upon another flat reflecting surface (without
pressure) it will not for an intimate contact, but it will lie on some
angle θ making an inclined plane.
 If the optical flat be now illuminated by monochromatic source of
light, the eye if placed in proper position will observe a number of
bands. These are produced by the interference of the light rays
reflected fro the lower surface of the top flat and the top surface of
the lower flat through a very thin layer of air between the flats.
 S is the source of monochromatic light. At
point A, the wave of incident beam from S is
partially reflected along AB and is partially
transmitted across the air gap along AC. At C,
again the ray is reflected along CD and passes
out towards the eye along CDE. Thus two
reflected components, reflected at A and C
are collected and recombined by the eye,
having travelled paths whose lengths differ by
an amount ACD.
 AC and FH = 3 λ/4 - λ/4 = λ/2
Checking of flatness by above method
 In practice, on the surface to be tested, we have
large number of hills and valleys and in these
circumstances following figure will show the
behaviour of optical flat if it is made to rest on
the hills. If optical flat is resting on a hill then it
will just behave as if it were placed on some
spherically convex surface. In such case the
contact is made at the central high point and in
centre a bright circle will be visible. Around it
there will be concentric dark and bright circular
fringes.
 As the distance from the centre increases the
separation between the optical flat and the
surface keeps on increasing and the fringes
become narrow and more closely spaced.
THANK YOU