Ultra-precision engineering: from physics to manufacturing.

Sir Christopher Wren is widely acknowledged as a key individual in the formation of the Royal Society, a society initially advocated ‘for the promotion of physicomathematical experimental learning’. Many people would not be surprised to learn that England’s most famous architect was a driving force behind the Royal Society. But most people would not know that Wren was at that time an astronomer. Astronomy is a field of science that depends on ‘physico-mathematical experimental learning’. It is a field that critically requires the construction of pioneering experimental equipment. In fact, since the establishment of the Royal Society, the equipment demands of astronomers have continually tested man’s engineering capabilities. Undoubtedly, astronomy is one of the major forces to push the frontiers of precision engineering, today, engineering nanotechnology applied to meso-sized and large ultra-precision optical components. The application of metrology, today microand nano-metrology, to manufacturing processes is a key element of ultra-precision engineering. Ultra-precision engineering is, however, a key enabling driver behind many fields of science from astronomy/astrophysics and nanoscience to healthcare. All too often, perhaps understandably, these engineering achievements are hidden behind headline scientific findings and techniques. The wider relevance of these engineering achievements, those which today enable modern devices, such as integrated circuits, computers, television, satellite-systems, cameras, mobile phones, renewable energy systems, more efficient engines, artificial human implants, medical devices, etc., are unseen and unsung by an increasingly dependent general public. Historically, step-changes in precision engineering have frequently led to breakthroughs in scientific research, better products and economic trade. One example, the Harrison chronometer H4 in the eighteenth century led to a renaissance in terrestrial geography; in the twentieth century both modern telecommunications and the global positioning satellite system employ the extreme accuracy of the atomic clock.