George Schuetz A ir gaging s principles haven t changed in more than 50 years of existence. But as new methods of gaging emerge, air gaging remains very capable of high accuracy, high throughput dimensional inspection in a production environment. Virtually any kind of machined feature can be measured for dimension, position, clearance and interference, and form errors.
Tomorrow s gaging challenges are predictable.
Tolerances will continue to tighten, and 10 or 20 microinches will be the norm in many industries. As that occurs, the effects of hitherto insignificant geometry or form errors may become significant. Production runs will shorten, placing more demands on gaging efficiency and versatility. And of course, customers will continue to demand higher levels of quality assurance, increasing the need for data collection. A single indicating unit can be used on a variety of gaging tasks by changing the tooling.