Tuesday, 16 March 2010

NPL Training Courses

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is the UK's National Measurement Insitute.  They are responsible for measurement standards in the UK, and are a leading centre for scientific research.  NPL provide guidance on good practice, wide ranging resources for education, along with commercial training and consultancy services.

The NPL Training Framework consists of a matrix of measurement-related training programmes.  The framework has been developed in partnership with industry with the following objectives:
  • to develop core skills and competencies in practitioners
  • to raise the level of technical knowledge
  • to promote and instil good practice
  • to foster a questioning and planning culture
The NPL training programmes are accredited by NPL, validated by The National Skills Academy for Manufacturing, and delivered only by NPL Accredited Training Providers.

Iain Macleod Associates became an NPL Accredited Training Provider last year for the courses in dimensional measurement.  These courses teach the fundamental principles of metrology for engineers, inspection and QA people.

Courses which teach people how to inspect engineering components obviously have a natural fit with courses which teach people how to specify engineering components, and make a logical extension to our training portfolio.  This means that we can now offer a consistent range of training courses across the spectrum of design, manufacture and inspection.

Click here for a flyer describing these courses in more detail.

2 comments:

  1. Mas'ood Shahbazi4 April 2010 at 01:25

    Hi Iain,
    Congratulations on the accreditation by NLP for the dimensional measurement courses.
    From your point of view, how much of dimensional measurement details a "specifier" needs to know about? In other words, do I, as a specification practitioner, have to be knowledgeable about measurement methods, measuring devices, calibration procedures, uncetaintiy, process control, etc., when I am tolerancing a part?

    Regards,
    Mas'ood Shahbazi

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  2. Hi Mas'ood.

    I think a designer or 'specifier' benefits from knowing about measurement methods in the same way that they benefit from knowing about manufacturing methods.

    It is not always appreciated that the limits on the tolerance that you can achieve are sometimes dicatated by limitations to what you can measure, rather than limitations to what you can make.

    Generally speaking, designers are quite aware of manufacturing processes, but very unaware of measurement processes. Knowledge of both will be reflected in more practical designs.

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