Principles and Techniques for Designing Precision Machines
| Author | Layton Carter Hale |
|---|---|
| Published | February 1999 |
| Format | Research paper |
| Original | Read the original |
TL;DR — An MIT PhD thesis, issued as a Lawrence Livermore report, setting out the principles of precision engineering and how to design machines that are both accurate and cheap.
Layton Carter Hale’s 1999 MIT mechanical engineering thesis, published by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as UCRL-LR-133066. It covers the design principles of precision machines (error budgets, kinematic and flexure design, structures, thermal effects) and the tradeoff between precision and cost.
Case studies come from LLNL projects including the Large Optics Diamond Turning Machine, the National Ignition Facility and extreme ultraviolet lithography. It is widely used as a reference in the precision-engineering community.
What it is: a doctoral thesis and government laboratory report, a well-regarded technical reference.
Where this came from
- A copy saved in October 2026.
- OSTI (U.S. Department of Energy): https://www.osti.gov/biblio/8431 ; also UNT Digital Library
493 pages. A copy is archived locally against link rot; the header links the original source.