Quality 101

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When material surfaces are in mechanical contact and slide against each other, complex microscopic interactions occur between the surfaces that lead to friction and wear.

Why leak test? Leak testing is performed to ensure that when in service, the component or assembly has zero leakage or a leakage that is acceptable over time for the fluid/gas that it is meant to contain, or conversely to prevent material on the outside from leaking in.

A height gage does exactly as its name indicates—measures the height of a workpiece.

Building aircraft has always been a struggle between the size of their components and the need to craft them carefully. 

Torque testing is an important quality-control step in nearly every manufacturing sector. Properly testing rotary parts for torque with handheld or automated gages can prevent everything from un-openable bottle caps to loose fasteners. Or, in a grave example, if GM properly acted on failed rotational torque tests of ignition switches in some of its mid-2000s models, 13 lives would have been saved.

Work holding fixtures for inspection devices have evolved over time and now have become, in some cases, as complex as the parts they are designed to hold. There was a day when some 1-2-3 blocks, knee blocks, double-sided tape and hot glue were all you needed to fixture parts for measurement on a coordinate measuring machine (CMM). 

Choosing the right stylus for a coordinate measuring machine probe is a balancing act of size, weight, rigidity and hardness.