76th international ISO meeting held in Huddersfield
Mon, 04 Nov 2013 14:54:00 GMT
“...the International Standards Organisation keeps us at the forefront of machine tool metrology developments...”
Pictured above: Among the delegates at the 76th ISO meeting are the University's Professor Alan Myers [centre] and Dr Wolfgang Knapp [centre left], from Switzerland, Chairperson ISO Technical Committee.
EXPERTS at the University of Huddersfield are playing an important role in setting the increasingly exacting standards demanded from today’s manufacturing industry.
Several members of the University’s EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Advanced Metrology have been closely involved with both the British Standards Institute (BSI) and the International Standards Organisation (ISO).
Professor Alan Myers (pictured), Dr Simon Fletcher and Dr Andrew Longstaff all serve on the technical committee ISO TC39 SC02, which is responsible for determining test conditions for metal-cutting machine tools. It assembles every six months in locations around the world and has now been hosted by the University of Huddersfield for the first time.
A total of 31 members of the committee attended the five-day session. They came from China, Korea, Japan, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the USA and Switzerland. The delegates included both academic researchers and industrialists and it was the 76th twice-yearly meeting of the committee.
“Machine tool technology is continuously advancing, so there is a constant requirement for different measurement techniques. We must ask if there a better way of performing tasks using the very latest equipment,” said Professor Myers.
It can take several years for a standard to be agreed, he explained. When the committee meets, it carries out detailed reviews of draft standards that are prepared by individual members. When finalised they are issued as formal standards for use around the world.
Professor Myers and his colleagues have been on the ISO committee for two-and-a-half years.
“It is a valuable opportunity for us to use our knowledge. Many of the new standards are highly applicable to our research, and working with the International Standards Organisation keeps us at the forefront of machine tool metrology developments. Also, it is very good for the University of Huddersfield’s profile,” added Professor Myers, who also chairs the BSI committee that covers standards for metal cutting machine tools.
“These standards are created within ISO and then implemented by BSI in the UK and by its equivalents overseas. Wherever possible it is best to work to an ISO standard because it is truly international,” said Professor Myers.
