Almost every home has this measuring device. Ordinary mechanical measuring tape. It looks so simple that it's almost impossible to guess which one is the best.
The tape measure was invented by a Chinese scientist Cheng Dwei back in the sixteenth century, it was used to measure land plots. Actually, such a meter became the "ancestor" of the measuring tape. Today, this device is used not only by repair craftsmen. They also resort to this tool for help when they are going to buy new furniture, curtains. And even more so, you can’t do without it when building a garage, summer house, cottage, etc.
What kind of device is this - a measuring tape? A question that makes you smile. And yet.
This is a tool for measuring large linear objects and for marking out indoors. The main element of the roulette is an elastic band. The main material from which such tapes are made is steel, calibrated in metric or any other measuring system.
Metal measuring tapes are a coil placed in a housing, on which a steel tape is wound. A spring mechanism is provided for its winding. On sale you can find roulettes with two types of winding mechanisms:
- with return spring;
- with a mechanical rotating handle that is directly connected to the tape spool.
Measuring tape of the second type is becoming less and less common. It can be confidently credited to the "dying" species. The first ones are convenient because the masters working with them do not waste time twisting them.
Could the Chinese inventor Cheng Dwei assume that four hundred years after his "grand" invention, the main element of the measuring tape would be not a metal tape, but a beam? In today's measuring instruments, it is the laser beam that is the “tape” that makes it possible to measure the distances between points with high accuracy. In addition, this distance can reach several hundred meters. Of course, tape roulettes are not capable of such a "feat".
What is a laser measuring tape? This is a compact device that fits easily in your pocket. It has a processor that reads information and a display. The information is stored in the instrument's memory. At the first need, a specialist working with a laser tape measure can “resurrect” the measurements taken earlier in memory. Working with such a tool is a pleasure, because. measurements are made forseconds. The master puts the tape measure at one point, fixes the beam at another point and immediately reads the necessary information on the monitor.
This calculation process looks like this:
- device sends pulses to the desired point for the master;
- sent pulses bounce off this point;
- pulses are processed by the processor;
- the received information is transmitted through the processor to the screen of the device.
Laser tape measure, despite its accuracy and compactness, remains quite an expensive pleasure, so the majority of craftsmen still have a measuring tape in their bag. GOST also exists for such roulettes, it just regulates everything that allows the master to make high-quality measurements.
