montagevlak

Montagevlak is a Dutch term that translates roughly as mounting plane. In engineering and manufacturing, it refers to a flat, rigid surface used as a reference plane for assembling parts or mounting equipment. The integrity of the montagevlak is critical; it is manufactured to tight flatness and perpendicularity tolerances and is often paired with datum features such as edges, grooves, or mounting holes to aid alignment and repeatability. Typical materials include ground steel, granite, or rigid aluminum panels, sometimes with a protective coating or a grid for measurement.

A montagevlak may be part of a larger fixture or a stand-alone inspection or assembly bench. It is used in machining to set workpieces, in electronics assembly to position boards, and in optics and metrology to align components with a common reference. In practice, users rely on the montagevlak to establish a repeatable zero reference when measuring, inspecting, or assembling.

In Dutch technical contexts, the term emphasizes the role of the surface as a reference rather than a functional component; the concept is closely related to other terms such as reference plane, datum plane, or fixture plate. While the term montagevlak is Dutch, similar concepts exist under different names in other languages.

See also: fixture, jig, reference plane, optical bench.