Precision Engineering Consortium (PEC)
The Precision Engineering Consortium (PEC) is a multidisciplinary research activity that began in 1982 with faculty from the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and now includes 2 faculty and 2 graduate students from Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering. The Consortium, housed in an 11,000 square foot facility on Centennial Campus, has 2 full-time staff members and an average annual expenditure rate of $500,000. NC State is located in the heart of the Research Triangle area of North Carolina. The research program emphasizes metrology (sensors and measurement systems), innovative precision fabrication processes (machining, grinding, polishing), and real-time process control.
Our logo, the angstrom (Å), symbolizes the scale of interest at the PEC. An angstrom is one-millionth the diameter of a human hair.
Precision Engineering is an attitude as well as a technique. It has been defined as painstaking attention to detail and requires knowledge of a wide variety of measurement, fabrication, and control issues. Increasing the precision–the accuracy and repeatability–of a mechanism or process is critical to our country’s competitive position in the world of high technology.
The Precision Engineering Consortium was created to provide our nation’s industries with insightful research and skilled engineers and scientists. Our job is to develop technology for high precision measurement and production, and to work with innovative industries that will apply that technology to make new and better products. At the same time, we are training graduate engineers and scientists in the R&D skills high-tech companies need for future growth. Students and faculty across the breadth of engineering and science learn problem-solving techniques with a team approach.
The PEC maintains a list of other sources of information about Precision Engineering. If you know of a resource that should be included in this list and would like to see it added, send e-mail to Gracious Ngaile (gracious_ngaile@ncsu.edu).
The Precision Engineering Consortium’s computer scientists, physicists, and engineers form a unique multidisciplinary research team. These researchers have an impressive array of resources at their disposal.
The PEC research team can provide engineering consultation, prototype fabrication, and state-of-the-art metrology services to industrial and research communities. For more information, please contact Gracious Ngaile (gracious_ngaile@ncsu.edu).
