George Schuetz Director of Precision Gages

15 Dec 2009

Dealing With Dirty Patches

Gage calibration is a routine process followed by most users of precision gages. How regular a gage needs to be checked and its performance documented is usually defined step by step in a documentation procedure.

11 Nov 2009

Charting Roughness For Grit-Blasted Surfaces

When an engineer includes a surface finish spec on a print, the intent is usually not just to make the part look good. Surface finish affects how a part will fit, wear, reflect light, transmit heat, distribute lubrication and accept coatings. The finish should be determined by the part’s function: A surface should fulfill engineering requirements without producing a higher-quality finish than necessary.

14 Oct 2009

Striking The Right Chord For Partial Diameters

Measuring the diameter of a hole is one of the most common inspection tasks in a production environment. Given the number and types of tolerances for diameters, many different gaging techniques are available to do these checks. From calipers to air gaging and everything in between, there is an appropriate gage for the application.

16 Sep 2009

Caliper Tips And Tricks

Calipers, which can be Vernier, dial or digital, are versatile tools for basic length measurement. They can be used on the shop floor, in the inspection room or even in the home by hobbyists.

18 Aug 2009

Skidded Probes For Roughness Measurement

ANSI and ISO standards include many different parameters for measuring surface finish. While these parameters are useful in many applications to ensure or enhance functionality, Ra, or average roughness, is by far the most common measure of surface finish. It is included in most specs, and it is both a good starting point and a basic benchmark of process consistency.

22 Jul 2009

Measuring Surface Finish On Large ODs

The irregularity of a machined surface is the result of the machining process, including the choice of tool, feed rate, speed of the tool, machine geometry and environmental conditions. This irregularity consists of high and low spots that are machined into a surface by the tool bit or a grinding wheel. These peaks and valleys can be measured and used to define the condition and, sometimes, the performance of the surface.

15 Jun 2009

Measuring Squareness With Air

The right angle is one of those things that man has created in his mind. In nature it happens only by chance. However, the importance of this concept—which results from the perpendicular intersection of lines or surfaces—applies to many things, including architecture, civil engineering, agriculture and manufacturing.

14 Apr 2009

The Point Of Error-Free Measurements

Test indicators are extremely useful and versatile test instruments. Spending a little time worrying about the details of the contact points will help improve the whole measurement process.

16 Mar 2009

Pushing Air Gaging Limits

Air gaging allows you to measure many jobs faster, more conveniently and more accurately than other gaging methods.

17 Feb 2009

The Long And Short On Depth Gages

Depth gages are among the simplest of indicator gages, typically consisting of a short-range indicating device mounted through a reference bar or plate. Though they may be simple, depth gages are used in thousands of critical applications.

15 Jan 2009

Getting The Right Rz

As the manufacturing of parts continues to become internationalized, it is not uncommon for different standards developed in various countries to become blended into new international standards. Once new international standards become available, the world is expected to embrace them and begin using them. However, this may not always be the case.

16 Dec 2008

Calibrating Threaded Plug Gages

Just like gage blocks provide the basis for dimensional measurement, threaded plug gages are the fundamental tools used to verify that an internal thread is correct. Different types of threads serve different purposes, so there are many different threaded plug gages. As with any reference standard, these threaded plug gages need to be inspected to ensure that they are within their original specification.