Air Gaging is a highly accurate method of checking tight tolerance features. Air Gaging can be used to check bores or shafts, where accuracy and repeatability are critical.
Air gages use air flow to measure size. The rate of air flow is proportional to the clearance. To set an air gage, the rate of air flow is measured using masters that are calibrated to the high and low of the part tolerance. In the past, air columns were used to tell if a part was good or bad. These are column instruments were essentially an air flow indicator. Pressurized air suspended a float in a transparent tube; this float moved up and down in the tube according to the flow of air. From the top of the tube, the air flowed through a hose and exhausted through the clearance between the gage device and the work piece.
Today, just measuring a part is not good enough. Our customers demand data collection so they can monitor trends and control machining operations before parts are out of tolerance. Birdsall Tool & Gage Company (http://www.airgages.com) has a solution for this. We convert the air flow readings to a digital signal that allows for integrated SPC studies as X-bar and range charts, monitored and stored statistics such as min, max, sigma, cp and cpk with a time and date stamp. The Gage-Chek is a multi-channel digital readout that accepts up to 16 gaging inputs from a wide variety of encoders, sensors and transducers. It features intuitive graphic displays, helpful audio cues and user-defined formulas. It also reports dynamic Min/Max measurements, provides SPC analyses from an integrated database and includes connectivity to PCs and other peripherals. The best part of all, is that the Metronics Gage-Chek can be recycled and reprogrammed on the floor reducing your total cost of gaging.
