The process of measurement and calibration has evolved light years since its beginnings, yet the basic fact remains that gage and equipment calibration is critical to the survival of manufacturing, regardless of the industry it is applied to.
Remember the first time in school you used a calculator instead of paper and pencil to add, subtract, multiply or divide? It made the job so easy, it almost felt like cheating. The technology freed you to focus on the problem rather than the mechanics of arithmetic.
In recent columns I presented answers to the most-asked questions regarding measurement and calibration, and I hope some of them have been helpful. As more companies start calibrating their gages and instruments, more questions arise, but many of them are answered in a 28-page document titled, "Searching For Zero."
Large and expensive enterprise document management systems provide a powerful solution for the massive amounts of documentation required to conform to the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) quality system requirements. But these systems are generally far too expensive to purchase, customize and maintain for small medical device manufacturers.
Gerhardt Gear (Burbank, CA), a 54-person operation, has been known for its specialty gear work since 1982. General manager John Kim says the company had been using a large coordinate measuring machine (CMM) for many of its dimensional measurements until about a year ago when it was "basically replaced" by a CX1 Digimar height gage from Mahr Federal (Providence, RI).
A diverse array of products, parts and components can travel through automated assembly lines. For any assembly line, there will always be the requirement of holding and fixturing these parts. Fixturing includes everything from conventionally machined, dedicated nests to more complicated variable systems that automatically adapt and accommodate the part currently being assembled.
For more than 30 years, Spectralux Corp. (Redmond, WA) has provided lighted displays, data entry keyboards and avionics assemblies for the defense and commercial aerospace industries. The company designs and manufactures panels-lightplate and keyboard-for first- and second-tier aerospace companies.
Like many instruments in measurement, gage pins are misused.
There are few inspection departments that don't have one or more sets of what are commonly known as gage pins. Ranging in size up to 1 inch or 25 millimeters to about 2 inches or 50 millimeters long, they are very handy for a wide range of measuring situations. But, like many instruments in measurement, they also are misused.
Dear Editor, I would like to offer my most sincere thanks for daring to print the article, "China's Workers are Critical" (Quality Magazine, October 2005, p. 6). For many years I have been studying these same issues and my attitude toward corporate America has changed dramatically as a result.
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