2002-02-07 Interesting. Even if it isn't practical to change threads to SI, or manufacturing adapters when fitting an SI pipe to a FFU pipe, there is no reason the FFU diameter and thread pitch can not be expressed in millimetres.
What you said about an industry going metric because its new hirees could not function in FFU, is something to expand on. It might help to get the word out to other industries. Maybe some of the companies that experience a lot of wastage do to employees not doing it right in FFU, can be shown by example that they can become more efficient if they went to SI. Sheer economics should be enough reason to change. John ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, 2002-02-07 13:36 Subject: [USMA:18015] metric for IP products > 2002 February 7 > I just received this note from R. Schulte, President of ASTM. > At one time I was employed in the gas utility industry. I related to you the > difficulties that this one business sector, the natural gas and propane > distribution industry, faces in moving to the use of SI units. Gas utilities > in the U.S. are delivering fuel to an estimated 200 million gas-fired > appliances installed in residences and commercial buildings. The industry > has not been able to figure out how it could switch pipe and thread sizes to > metric units without introducing large gas leak (safety) problems into the > gas distribution networks where service and installation technicians would be > dealing with a mix of metric and IP threads. This one, narrow example has > led me to understand why the adoption of metric units in ASTM standards > remains a committee-by-commitee and sector-by-sector issue. > > At the same time, parts of the gas industry have learned the value of metric > unit measurement. Maybe five years back, I had the experience of visiting an > appliance production plant where they faced a shortage of trained production > workers. The company, therefore, was hiring new staff and putting them > through an in-plant education program. The company quickly discovered that > their new employees were available in the labor market, in part, because they > lacked math skills. Some new employees could not manipulate fractions at > all. The company, therefore, adopted the strategy of teaching production > line workers measurement methods based on metric units that were seen as > easier to use than IP units. This meant, in effect, that the company ended > up making some appliance components for an inch-pound market using metric > measurement tools and methods in the plant. This example suggests to me that > U.S. industry is not unaware of the value of metric measurement; we just > haven't found a good place to make the introduction of SI units in an > economical and safe manner. > Robert Bushnell >
