Height gauge halves inspection times
A
Mahr Federal product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Mar 23, 2006
Californian gear company replaces large CMM for dimensional measurements with motorised, programmable height measuring systems for gauge laboratory and production measurement use.
Gerhardt Gear, a 54 person operation in Burbank, California, USA, has been known for its specialty gear work since 1982.
General Manager John Kim said the company had been using a large CMM for many of its dimensional measurements until about a year ago when it was "basically replaced" by a CX1 Digimar height gauge from Mahr Federal.
The Digimar CX1 is part of a family of motorised, programmable height measuring systems for gauge laboratory and production measurement use.
"We're very pleased with the Digimar", said Kim.
"It's very simple to use, very simple to program, and much quicker to program than the CMM".
But the real advantage is its speed of measurement.
Gerhardt Gear uses the CX1 in its laboratory for a wide range of measurements - including IDs and ODs, linear measurements and positions, and centre to centre distances.
Kim said: "It has cut our inspection time just about in half".
He cited one example where it took the CMM nearly 20 minutes to perform a certain measurement.
"The Digimar did the same measurement in less than a minute", he said.
All Digimar height gauges use motorised measuring slides that reduce operator influence on part probing to increase measurement precision and repeatability.
Key measuring functions can be executed with a single press of a button; and readily programmable measuring routines make it possible to sample batches of mass produced parts quickly and easily.
Measuring and evaluation functions include the measurement of planes, grooves, bores and shafts, and the calculation of distances and symmetries.
Maximum-minimum measurements are also supported, as are perpendicularity measurements with a digital dial indicator.
Canned routines for basic features and simple teach and learn techniques make it easy to program the CX1 for various measurement tasks.
Gerhardt Gear likes the Digimar so much it is considering another one for the shop floor.
Kim said: "Operators aren't as kind to equipment as the folks in the lab, but we think the Digimar is rugged enough and is so easy to operate that it will do just fine".
"And because every measurement is programmable, it will really help with our in-process inspection".
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