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Tuesday, 7 January 2014

Alignment Technology & How It Is Used

By Carey Bourdier


Alignment technology includes instruments and equipment that are used for precise leveling and calibration with a host of practical applications. This type of technology can be used to build military equipment, create safe bridges, for wind-energy technology, meteorology and much more.

Highly precise alignment instruments are used to detect flaws in many important structures, including dams and bridges. When levels and level sensors are used, engineers can test the durability of bridges, measure the amount of shifting or perhaps vibrations and determine if the bridge is safe or needs improvements to ensure the public's safety. Engineers use this technology to improve retrofitting and constructing, making buildings and housing safer in case of earthquakes, tornadoes and other types of natural disasters. Alignment technology also can prevent potential problems in large dam operations, measuring the base erosion of these dams.

A weather balloon might sound like a simple piece of technology, but these days the balloons are highly precise instruments that provide accurate wind speed measurements, accurately calculate wind direction and track wind shifts. Surprisingly, technological advances such as resonance technology and Doppler radar cannot truly detect these changes as well as a precise weather balloon. Not only does this information aid meteorologists, it can be used to help firefighters better anticipate wind shifts to help them better fight large wildfires.

There are several companies that design equipment for different types of military equipment, from shipboard alignment systems used on massive naval ships and aircraft carriers to systems that the radar array in a jet fighter is seated in precisely the correct position that is relative to the rest of the jet. Warren-Knight is one such company that has created systems that do everything from calibrating the boresights on the Bradley Fighting Vehicle to ensuring that support struts in AWACS radar pods have been manufactured to exacting angle specifications.

Of course, the above uses for this type of technology affect the lives and safety of millions of people, but alignment technology is used for a host of important, although perhaps less crucial, products. Books, newspapers and magazines are printed on giant presses that must be precisely aligned in order to create a quality product. The blades of earth-moving machines and the blades of wind-energy machines also must be created to exacting specifications.

In fact, just about every product that is mass produced relies on some type of alignment technology. Imagine the inconsistencies in products such as cars or trucks or in medical equipment if they are not created using precise, accurate equipment.




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