| |
| From "Feinmess" to Industrial Measuring Technology |
| |
Before World War I, the Carl Zeiss product range included optical measuring instruments for scientific, medical and ophthalmic applications, the food industry and surveying. For technical use, the firm offered measuring microscopes, special constructions such as Abbe’s thickness gauges and comparators, but no mechanical measuring instruments such as angle gauges, micrometer screws or rulers.
 |  |  |
| Zeiss precision measuring instrument with stand, ca. 1923. Measuring range 0.1 mm; reading accuracy 0.005 mm. | Gear testing instrument with double image microscope, ca. 1922 | Internal measuring machine, ca. 1922. |
| |
Due to the severe restriction in the production of military optics after World War I, Carl Zeiss also started to manufacture technical measuring instruments for general use, ensuring that no jobs were put at risk. In its early days, the ”Feinmess” (literal translation: ”Precision Measuring”) department as it was then known, produced instruments whose design had remained unchanged for several decades. However, attempts were made to enhance their construction and accuracy.
 |
| Meter comparator based on an interferometer for absolute measurements up to lengths of 1000 mm. |
| |
Optical measuring instruments and testing methods from Carl Zeiss allowing accuracy levels in the range of thousandths of millimeters or even smaller were highly acclaimed. This is attributable, above all, to Otto Eppenstein, who directed the department for 20 years, and to the designer Adolf Steinle. Some examples of their accomplishments include the length measuring machines incorporating the Eppenstein principle for guiding error compensation, the universal measuring microscope, and the optimeter – a sensitive opto-mechanical indicator. Eppenstein was responsible for no fewer than 78 patents and registered designs. The principles which he developed were so ahead of their time that some of his instrument constructions continued to be built practically unchanged until the end of the 1960s.
 |  |
| Dr. Otto Eppenstein (1876–1942), head of the ”Feinmess” Department at Carl Zeiss from 1919 to 1939. | Light section microscope for non-contact measurement of surfaces and films. |
| |
In the second half of the 20th century Carl Zeiss precision measuring instruments were mainly used in production and quality assurance in the metal-working and electronics industries. Carl Zeiss pursued seven avenues of development: interferometric length measurement, straightforward optical reading of the measured results, increasing the accuracy of mechanical probing, direct measurement on machine tools, digitization of the measured value output, modular construction, and objectification of test piece indexing.
Return to the top of the page | |
|