2002-12-07 Even legacy parts can be built in metric. In most cases, these parts were not made to fractional inches, but decimal. With resolution to the thousandths part of an inch. Many of those old drawings are probably still old hand drawings. In some cases, it may be necessary to redraw the old part with CAD. If this be the case, then the drawing can be convert to millimetres at the same time. Even if the person who is doing the CAD entry keeps the old dimensions, there are ways to mass convert the dimensions from FFU to SI with the proper number of decimal places needed.
I'm sure when these drawings were done in thousandth, they were not rational relative to fractions, thus they will not need to be converted to rational SI. An in some cases, where dimensions don't have to be really precise, those can be rounded to the nearest whole number. There may be a need to maintain legacy parts, but that doesn't mean they need to be made with legacy measurements. John ----- Original Message ----- From: "Terry Simpson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, 2002-12-05 15:03 Subject: [USMA:23812] Caterpillar > This may be common knowledge on this list but I found the following > interesting piece of dialogue: > > http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/science/hsy73317.000/hsy73317_0.HTM > > > [begin quote] > > Chairman EHLERS. I would appreciate it. And now a quick question for all > of you. I happen to, as a scientist, think the metric system is > considerably more convenient than the English system of units. Is there > concurrence on that among this group or not? Mr. Ritterbusch, > particularly, are all Caterpillar products now made in the metric > system? > > Mr. RITTERBUSCH. That is a little bit difficult-all new designs are > in metric. We still have some legacy designs, as you know. We keep some > of the products around for a long period of time and there are still > some legacy designs that are in U.S. customer units. But as far as all > of the new product designs, they are fully metric. > > > Page 37 PREV PAGE TOP OF DOC > Chairman EHLERS. Do you find that generally true across American > industry? > > Mr. RITTERBUSCH. No. It is only really those industries that have a > real interest in doing export and satisfying a global market that really > push that. Some of our suppliers, domestic suppliers, would still like > to stay in U.S. customer-- > > Chairman EHLERS. Do you have any problems with your employees? Do > you have to train them to use the metric system and are-is that > difficult? > > Mr. RITTERBUSCH. Well, we have been doing this for so long that I > think we are really past the big training effort, but, yes, there was a > lot of training when we started. It took time to get people to be able > to visualize a millimeter rather than 1/16 of an inch. And after a while > they would learn how to do that and they understand the dimensions. > > [end quote] > -- > Terry Simpson > Human Factors Consultant > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > www.connected-systems.com > Phone: +44 7850 511794 > > >
