Ultra Precision Machine Tools

The growth of the ultra precision technologies, precision engineering, micro engineering and now engineering nanotechnology is, naturally, closely related to the development of ultra precision machine tools (UPMTs). Among the first ultra precision machine tools to appear on the world stage were diamond turning machines at the U.S. defence laboratories of Lawrence Livermore and Oak Ridge in the late 1960s. These early machines were based on the beds of jig boring machines with hand scraped and lapped prismatic guideways, incorporating high quality lapped leadscrews typical of jig borers and jig grinding machines of that era.