Columns
Going To The Extremes
When most of us think about measurement environments, what generally comes to mind are pleasant laboratories with temperatures controlled to 68°F/20°C—plus or minus a degree or two. Or in the worst case, we picture a gaging shop with swings of temperature between 65° and 90° F.
Read MoreA Flexible Turret Index Position
The cutting tools in your turning centers change on a regular basis. To minimize tool change time during setups, many setup people will simply load the tools required for the new job and leave tools in the turret from the last job as long as they don't interfere with the new job.
Read MoreCombining Absolute And Incremental Motions
While we agree that the absolute mode should be your positioning mode of choice for most applications, there are times when incremental mode can be quite helpful. Repeating motions within a subprogram, for example, is one excellent example.
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Gaging Countersunk And Chamfered Holes
While countersunk and chamfered holes are similar in appearance, functionally they are quite different. Consequently, different gages exist to serve these different functional requirements.
Read MoreA Realistic Definition Of Cycle Time
Many people determine cycle time by measuring cycle start to cycle start time. As the operator presses the cycle start button, he or she starts the stopwatch.
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Never Forget The Basics
We spend a lot of time in this column discussing sophisticated gages and out-of-the-ordinary applications—so much so, that perhaps we've lately been neglecting the basics. After all, the fanciest electronics, computers and software won't deliver accurate results if good gaging practice is absent.
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Inspecting Tapers, Part 2: Toolholder Gaging
A few months ago, we discussed the calibration of conical taper masters, which are used to master taper gages. Now let's look at the parts those gages are used to inspect—toolholders.
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Assessing Gage Stability
Gage stability implies different things in different contexts. If taken literally, it may refer to whether there is something loose on the gage, or some other gage problem occurs randomly, to cause two identical trials to produce different results.
Read MoreWhich Is Faster, G00 or G01?
Special thanks to Kyle A. Thornley, Technical Instructor at GE Fanuc Automation, for explaining the principles described in this article.
Read MoreA Tool To Help With Jaw Boring
Machining soft jaws remains one of the most tedious and time-consuming tasks for turning centers, so anything you can do to organize and simplify this task will speed up your setups. In order to make the workholding setup when soft jaws must be machined, the setup person must remove the current top tooling from the chuck, find the set of jaws to be used for the new setup, mount the jaws to the chuck, clamp on some form of temporary plug or ring, and machine the jaws.
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Gaging 'Relational' Dimesions
Specifications often require inspection of dimensional relationships between two features, or between two dimensions on the same feature. Compared to single-dimension specifications (such as diameter), these "relational" specifications can be challenging to inspect.
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How to Correct for Cosine Error
A small shopfloor network lays the groundwork for large-scale, low-cost DNC throughout a major manufacturing facility.
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