Measuring inner and outer diameters of plug gages requires meeting a certain level of accuracy, and BorgWarner Morse TEC (Ithaca, NY), a manufacturer of automotive timing components, felt it wasn't consistently meeting those levels using a micrometer. Three years ago, the company decided to do something about it.
Using the Helio-Com by Atlantic Metrology (New York), technicians are able to measure plug gages within 0.1 micron repeatedly. "It was the level of accuracy we have never attained before," said Joe Rypl, metrology lab supervisor for BorgWarner. "We didn't have anything that would measure that accurately."