In the present study, we investigate the removal of extremely minute materials via a micro manipulator. This operation requires measurement and control of the position and attitude of the micro manipulator at a sub-micrometer level. Therefore, a miniature instrumentation sensor having six degrees-of-freedom is necessary. We devised a technology that measures the diffracted light from minute slits formed on the micro manipulator which enables the position and attitude to be measured in six degrees-of-freedom simultaneously using only one laser light.
In the present paper, we report the result of a trial production of minute slits formed by anisotropy etching at a high forming precision. We optimized the design of this minute slits based on Fraunhofer diffraction theory. In addition, we discuss the feasibility of the proposed technology as well as the experimental results of diffracted light distribution from these slits.

The dynamic calibration of silicon pressure sensor and whole pneumatic part of the pressure transducers becomes an important problem in many applications. The known methods are not satisfactory for low range sensors. In this paper a simple system for short pulse pressure generation is described. A method for determination of frequency response based on pressure pulse signal is presented. The obtained results show that this method is simply for realisation and useful for low range silicon pressure sensors.

Applications in the ultra-high pressure range are on the move forward. Of particular interest is the manufacturing of diesel injection components such as nozzles and rails. Also precision water jet cutting as well as high-pressure sterilisation, as a method of conservation in the food industry, have growing importance, mainly in Japan and the USA.
For these emerging fields traceability of the measuring equipment with the highest possible accuracy is also a must for these ultra high pressures.

This paper describes our attempts to determine the effective area of a pressure balance (Type V1600/4D, manufactured by Pressurements, Ltd.) that is used in our pressure-calibration laboratory as a standard pressure balance for gauge and differential pressure measurements. The gauge measuring range of this gasoperated balance extends from a nominal pressure of 20 Pa up to 16 kPa, and its minimum differential pressure measurement is 5 Pa. This pressure balance is a "discrete" system, and therefore it has several pistons and weights. In the measuring range from a nominal pressure of 400 Pa up to 16 kPa only two different pistons are used. From the calibration results relating to pressure and mass provided by the calibration laboratories of the NPL and Lm (Mass Laboratory of the MIRS) we derived an approximate formula for the effective area. This equation shows the nonlinearity of the pistons’ effective area. Good agreement between the indirectly measured and the approximated values of the effective area was obtained, and their deviations are more than four times smaller than the accuracy of this balance. Knowing the effective area of the piston will reduce the number of discrete calibration points that are required.

The crosswind stability of an operating ropeway is an essential factor for its system security in adverse weather conditions. This paper introduces a mobile measuring system for characterisation of the crosswind stability of ropeways, firstly describing the measuring concept and the measuring sensors, then presenting some data records of the cross inclination of the gondola and the corresponding wind speed.