Surveyors are those important individuals that study land for various purposes. In some cases, a land surveyor may be asked to help with the construction of a road or a new building. In other instances, a surveyor might help to settle a boundary dispute regarding two properties. There are also mining surveyors who help construct safe mines of all kinds. These surveyors use a variety of helpful pieces of equipment for their many calculations.
Chances are you’ve seen at least one of these surveying devices in action. The angle measuring tool known as the theodolite is very commonly seen, especially by road engineers and road surveyors. The theodolite is used for angle measuring in the horizontal and vertical planes. In some cases, a surveyor might opt for a total station, which includes the theodolite and a distance meter. Either way, this device can help ensure that roads are graded properly and that land is level for building.
Angle measuring is something needed for many different applications, including many types of surveying. One device that helps with angle measuring is the inclinometer, which calculates the angles in a slope. A surveyor also might refer to the inclinometer as simply a clinometer, but the device is still the same. In addition to land surveying tasks, one can use this angle measuring tool for ocean navigation, installing solar panels at precisely the right angles, measuring tree height in a forest and much more.
Some surveying companies offer more than land surveying and construction surveying as part of their realm of services. Sometimes they also employ engineers and provide what are known as alignment services, which means that specialized alignment instruments are used to align production equipment or industrial equipment, and this ensures that products and parts are created to exact specifications. When it comes to surveying and alignment, we are talking about the alignment of manmade objects such as a bridge or a building or a highway.
There are many different types of alignment instruments and these include many kinds of alignment telescopes as well as alignment collimators. These types of devices will be used by surveyors that study structures to measure or calculate movement over time. It might be monitoring changes in a bridge over the years or perhaps the movement of a bridge or road after a seismic event, such as an earthquake. The alignment instruments can gauge how much movement has occurred since the last calculations were made.
In addition to the angle measuring tools, optical instrument and alignment instruments mentioned in this article, there are many devices needed by surveyors and engineers. If you wish to study and become certified as a surveyor you definitely will learn how to use an assortment of unique and helpful devices.
Carey Bourdier loves writing about precision scientific instruments. For more information about surveying products such as a surveyor compass, or to find other alignment instruments, visit the Warren Knight site now.