How big is a Micron?

[buster]

 

[Schandyman]

 

[Imp4]

A micron is pretty small.

 

[SuperSalad]

A micron is pretty small.

Yeah but I hear picotechnology is the next frontier. Microtech and nanotech are simply too mainstream nowadays.

 

[CKN]

So-basically some of the "filter threads" are pontification and really discussing a few microns difference really doesn't mean much.

 

[supton]

Yeah but I hear picotechnology is the next frontier. Microtech and nanotech are simply too mainstream nowadays.

I plan to invest in femtotechnology next, try to stay ahead of the curve.

 

[SubLGT]

What's amazing is that there are machining centers with +/- 1 micron tolerance !

An article from 2008:

StackPath

As both a high-precision shop and builder of high-precision machine tools, Kern Micro- und Feinwerktechnik GmbH & Co. (www.kern-mcirotechnic.com) near Munich, Germany, and its U.S. subsidiary Kern Precision Inc. in Webster, Mass., know what it takes to be a successful highprecision machining shop. The requirements encompass machine tools, measuring capabilities, tooling, shop environments, and workholding.

To categorize the work it does in its shop and to differentiate its machine tool products’ accuracies, Kern defines high precision as three levels of part accuracy.

The first is micro-precision as defined by workpiece accuracies below 10 microns.

The second is ultra-precision, which is workpiece accuracies lower than 3 microns.

And, the third is nano-precision, defined by workpiece accuracies below 1 micron.

Kern builds machining centers for each one of these categories.

Kern’s Pyramid Nano is the company’s most accurate and largest machine. Its travels measure 20 in. by 20 in., and within that work envelope, the machine positions to an accuracy of 0.3 microns. It machines test workpieces to tolerances of +/- 1 micron.

How does Kern know this? It uses a special system from Carl Zeiss Inc. (www.zeiss.com) that has measuring accuracies of 0.25 microns. In fact, Kern is the first commercial user of this system.

 

[lyle]

Take the thickness of an ordinary dollar bill (or ordinary sheet of copy paper), visualize dividing that thickness into 100 equal parts, then each one is equal to a micron. Or in other words, there are 100 microns in the thickness of a dollar bill.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

--><-- That big

 

[SubLGT]

Submicron-Precision Machining Technology | Nidec Corporation

High-precision machining technology, one of the core technologies of the Nidec group, has played an important roll in our success story in the HDD motor market.

www.nidec.com

The principle behind fluid dynamic bearings is simple: the rotating shaft is supported by dynamic oil pressure generated by herringbone-shaped grooves etched into the bearings. However, the implementation of this technique hinges on highly advanced machining technology.

For example, although the diametral accuracy of our bearing shafts has a tolerance of +/- 1.5 μm, we take great care to keep all shafts within +/- 0.5 μm at our production plants. Furthermore, the gap between the shaft and the bearing has a maximum allowable deviation of 1 μm, while surface roughness has to be kept as low as 0.02 μm in extreme cases, depending on the product.

Etching the herringbone-shaped grooves that generate dynamic pressure in the bearing oil also requires high-precision machining, and the electrochemical machining equipment—including the electrodes—used in this process is developed in-house.

The helium-filled HDD is another recent innovation—designed in pursuit of higher performance—that makes use of Nidec's technology. As these new HDDs are hermetically sealed it is imperative to eliminate any residual non-helium gas remaining inside them. Moreover, the latest models have a less than 2 nm gap between the discs and the heads, further contributing to the need to limit any and all contamination to the extremes.

 

[Davejam]

So-basically some of the "filter threads" are pontification and really discussing a few microns difference really doesn't mean much.

How do you get to that conclusion?

 

[CKN]

How do you get to that conclusion?

A difference of 3 or 4 microns isn't going to make your motor last longer-it just isn't.

 

[SuperSalad]

A difference of 3 or 4 microns isn't going to make your motor last longer-it just isn't.

Will it make it last shorter, or the same?

 

[Silver]

This is way too vague. I mean, pollen from what plant? Hair from what race? Fine, medium or course salt? Beach sand?? Come on! Coffee grind? From what grinder?

Seriously, is smoke really that big? I sort of thought of it like a vapor.

 

[Davejam]

A difference of 3 or 4 microns isn't going to make your motor last longer-it just isn't.

I'm still not sure what point you're making and how it relates to the original post.
I'm not sure what 3 or 4 microns refers to, the difference between the best and worst filter efficiency is a wider margin than that.
There are SAE studies that would say it does matter.

 

[ARCOgraphite]

as an engineer, stuck in my head forever is: 25.4 microns per mil.

I would say under 5 microns can be pretty much ignored in motor oil flotsam.

Unless you threw diamond dust in the sump and you operate in boundary lubrication regimes with regularity;
cam tappets faces and cyl wall thrust zones and cam sprockets will be polished away a bit faster.

 

[tbm3fan]

as an engineer, stuck in my head forever is: 25.4 microns per mil.

I would say under 5 microns can be pretty much ignored in motor oil flotsam.

Unless you threw diamond dust in the sump and you operate in boundary lubrication regimes with regularity;
cam tappets faces and cyl wall thrust zones and cam sprockets will be polished away a bit faster.

Excuse me? You are thinking of how many millimeters are in 1 inch. So 25.4 mm, or 2.54 cm in 1 inch.

A micron is a metric unit of measurement where one micron is equivalent to one one-thousandth of a millimetre [1 micron (1μ) = 1/1000 mm] or 1 micron (micrometer) = 1/1,000,000 of a metre.

A piece of ordinary copy paper can range from 0.05-0.10 mm or 50-100 microns. The average human cornea is about 540-560 microns. The human eye can resolve down to 50-60 microns. E. coli can measure 2 microns in length and 1 micron in width.