Watch out for these accuracy-attacking elements.

Mechanical bearings, including ball, roller, taper roller, needle, spherical and cylindrical, to mention a few, have been in use for hundreds of years, with countless designs, applications and sizes, and just as many measurement requirements that need to be defined and verified.

Air gaging has become the inspection tool of choice for controlling critical parameters in the medical industry.

The automotive industry has special needs that make dedicated surface finish gages a necessity.

Measuring calipers have been around for nearly 150 years. In that time they have evolved into full-featured digital measuring systems. But it is a testament to the simplicity and versatility of the original design that the evolution has been so slow and that so few changes have been required to produce the instruments we are familiar with today.

Conceptually, the dimensional measurement process is quite simple. You get a drawing for a part-an electronic computer-aided design (CAD) file, blueprint, napkin doodle or whatever-which indicates certain critical part dimensions and tolerances: a particular diameter, for instance, must be 2.2370 inches ±0.0002 inch. All the manufacturer needs to do is to machine the parts to that dimension, then measure them to document that they are within the specified tolerance. What could be easier than that?

There are many ways to measure an outside diameter (OD), including scales, micrometers, calipers, coordinate measuring machines (CMMs), optical beams and vision systems. The choice depends on many factors including tolerance, run size, operator skill, part size and, of course, budget. An easy, fast, accurate and economical way of making such measurements is with an adjustable snap gage.

There are many applications-aside from those where custom gaging is the only possible solution-where custom tailoring a gage for an application can speed things up, improve accuracy, incorporate multiple measurements, generate sophisticated analysis or otherwise add value to the process.

Air gaging was the breakthrough measuring technology of the 1940s and 1950s. Introduced decades before electronic gaging was widely accepted, it provided the first high performance-50 microinch or better-gaging on the shop floor. Today, air gaging is just as important and actually growing in popularity.

Calipers are extremely versatile tools for making a wide range of distance measurements, including both outside diameters (OD) and inside diameters (ID). While micrometers are more accurate, they have a limited measurement range, typically several inches. Calipers can span from 2 inches to 4 feet, depending on the length of the scale. External measurements are made by closing the jaws over the piece to be measured, while internal measurements are made by opening up the inside diameter contacts. Depth and other measurements can be made with a depth rod built into the instrument’s beam.