Need for Certification
The Dimensional Metrology Standards Consortium (DMSC, Inc.) has officially announced the DMIS Certification Program for testing conformance of DMIS-based products against the DMIS Standard. This certification process has been years in the making with the help and expertise of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the DMIS Standards Committee (DSC), the Automotive Industry Action Group’s Metrology Interoperability Project Team (MIPT), and the DMSC membership. This collective group has developed a DMIS Conformance Test Suite, defined DMIS Conformance Classes, and established a DMIS Certification Program to validate the correctness and completeness of vendor DMIS-based products.
Dimensional measurement part programs and results are critical to manufacturing Quality Assurance. DMIS (Dimensional Measuring Interface Standard) is both an American National Standard and ISO international standard language for the correct, complete, and unambiguous description of computer-executable dimensional measurement part programs and measurement results. Because it is an accredited standard, DMIS is non-proprietary and represents industry consensus. Since DMIS is a very large standard, it has been divided up into several conformance classes, in order to accommodate the fact that many users only need to implement subsets of the standard.
DMIS is a successful, dynamic standard because it’s scope and capabilities have expanded over the years along with technology advances in the metrology industry. However, this success has brought about challenges in the area of conformance of DMIS implementations. Not surprisingly, many who claim DMIS conformance are conforming to some variation or modification of the actual DMIS Standard. This situation nullifies and inhibits one of the most fundamental benefits of the DMIS Standard, which is interoperability. Many large companies use the DMIS Standard to share inspection programs between subsidiaries around the world, among suppliers, and even among departments. The basic requirement to accomplish this interoperability is “stick to the standard.”
