The shaft is a ubiquitous item in every mechanical system; in fact, the vast majority of machining that goes on in the world is related to making either shafts or the pieces that hold them together. Shafts contain a number of key functional elements, such as splines, tapers, grooves, threads, cams and gears, which all have associated critical dimensions to allow mechanical systems to perform the function for which they were designed.
In the not so distant past, the critical dimensions on a typical shaft were measured with an array of hand tools such as calipers, micrometers, snap gages, and possibly a layout surface plate. However many of the diameters, lengths, angles, groove widths, fillet radii, or chamfers on these parts are ideally suited for modern specialized shaft measurement systems. Ever-increasing accuracy requirements and declining cycle times are also creating the need for rapid, precise measurement directly in the production environment. At the same time, shafts are often used in safety- and performance-critical applications, so ensuring precision, quality and high reliability is of the utmost importance.