Modern Gaging Trends: Technology Evolves to Meet the Needs of Today’s User
Implementing these new technologies will make today's gages easier to use, offer more capabilities in an easier-to-read fashion and survive point of manufacture gaging.
All types of gaging, whether it be hand tools, comparative gages, complex measuring stations or portable surface finish gages, have long gone digital. Many of today’s digital gages can perform complex measuring tasks and share information faster and easier than systems produced 10 years ago.
In many facilities, the quality control technician monitoring part quality in an inspection room, in a far corner of the plant, long after the product was produced is so 20th century. The norm today is monitoring part quality at the point of manufacture. This allows operators to inspect the part for quality and, using process control techniques, prevent bad parts from being produced. However, production operators have been trained to run fast, powerful and complex machine centers; they are not necessarily trained as quality control technicians. Thus, the gaging that is placed into the machinist’s hands must produce accurate and reliable measurements and also be easy to use without additional training.