Você está na página 1de 8

NONCONTACT GAGES

Another krill of electronic gage Is the noncontact thickness meter, which uses a
capacitive measurement method to eliminate the surface damage to the
material under inspection. The material thickness is calculated through the use
of high precision capacitance type gap detectors. Materials that are
conductors, semiconductors and insulators ranging from sheet steel to plate
glass can be inspected for thickness to the submicron level using this type of
instrument. The principle behind noncontact thickness measurement Is as
follows. Cap detectors (sensors) mea-sure displacement (gap) by calculating
the capacitance between the sensor and the part being inspected. This
capacitance is a function of the sensor's surface area, the opposing part
material and the gap between them. Assuming the part and the face of the
sensor are held parallel and given a known sensor surface area. the gap will be
inversely proportional to the capacitance. Then, through the use of processing
circuits, the need for linearization is eliminated and a voltage directly
proportional to the gap is determined. This voltage is convened to a digital
signal and processed to permit the display of the material thickness.
Noncontact gaging provides many advantages over measurement methods
requiring surface con-tact. Items such as compact recording discs and
photographic films can be measured without the fear of scratching the surface.
Continuous films can be measured automatically as they pass between the
sensors. This measurement method also eliminates any influence that contact
may have on soft or non-rigid materials.
Ultrasonic Gages
Ultrasonic gaging uses the principles of 1940s sonar. However. the electronic microprocessor
advances of recent years has permitted the miniaturization of this technology into a useful form
for the taking of thickness measurements. High frequency (1 to 20 MHz), short wavelength
ultrasound is now used in industry to make accurate thickness measurements on most
engineered materials (that is metals, plastics, ceramics, composites, epoxies and glass). The
measurement is made from only one side of the material as the ultrasound waves are sent
through the material to bounce (echo) off the opposite side and return to the sending/receiving
transducer to be digitally displayed as a thickness reading. The transducer converts sound
energy into electrical energy which is further processed electronically as the time interval
between the initial pulse and back wall echo is recorded. Material thicknesses of from 0.020
inch to 10.00 inches can be measured to an accuracy of 0.001 of an inch using ultrasonic
gaging. However, different materials transmit sound at different velocities. making It essential to
calibrate the ultrasonic gage using the material type to be measured.
Hall Effect Gages
This method of thickness measurement utilizes the Hall effect which is the production of a
transverse voltage in a conductor in a magnetic field. Figure shows a Hall effect thickness gage (a
magnetometer). which places a magnetic probe on one side of the material being measured and
a small target steel ball on the other
side. The Hall effect sensor measures the gap between the probe and the target ball. All
nonferrous materials up to 0.250 inch thick can be measured to an accuracy of from 1% to 3%
of the material thickness with this type of magnetometer.
Diverse Applications

DIVERSE APPLICATIONS OF ELECTRONIC GAGES The electronic gages. by producing electrical sig-nals, which can be amplified
and are proportional to the distance of the sensed displacement, are adapt-able to unique measuring applications and lend
themselves to many secondary functions that are in positive relation to the displacement sensed by the gage. The variety of
application possibilities and the multitude of secondary functions exclude a com-plete listing. In addition, such an attempt
would be utterly unsuccessful in view of continuous devel-opments and progress in the application of electron-ics for
dimensional measurements and controls. For the discussion of these important aspects of electronic gages, the following
procedure has been chosen: a. Listing in a tabulated form with examples of utilization, the unique characteristics of electronic
gages (see Table 7-4). Notations are added to indicate the sections or chapters where the pertinent instru-ments or processes
are discussed in greater detail. b. Discussing a few applications of electronic displacement gages and derived functions that
differ from the basic types of length measuring uses re-viewed in the preceding sections.
Digital Read-Out Systems for Electronic Gages Reading a meter by associating
the pointer posi-tion with a specific spot along the scale of the meter. and
then expressing that position in numerical val-ues by combining the printed
numerals and the in-termediate graduation lines. is a procedure burdened
with potential errors. The errors may stem from dif-ferent causes, the major
culprits being: (a) parallax errors when observing the meter's face from an
an-gle: and (b) errors in counting the graduation lines from the nearest
numeral. Some degree of uncertainty also originates from using judgment in
assign-ing a value to pointer positions that are not exactly in coincidence with
a scale graduation line. The use of digital displays connected to the am-plifier
of an electronic displacement gage can elim-inate the sources of readout
errors that are associated with meter faces and pointers. A digital display.
used in conjunction with a compatible transducer and amplified, will display
in numerals and without ambiguity the corresponding value of the sensed
dis-placement. The displaced numerals are easy to read. even from a
distance substantially greater than used for meter observation, and do not
have to be read from a particular. precisely aligned position. Most digital
displays permit four-digit presentation. providing a much higher resolution of
the sensed displacements than a meter with 20 to 50 graduation lines on
each side of the zero position. Various models of digital displays have
graduation lines between the least sig-nificant digits to provide additional
readout resolu-tion (Fig. 7-20). Range selection switching combined with
deci-mal point shift are also available on certain models and add to the
adaptation versatility of digital dis-plays for the purpose of dimensional
measurements. Most models of digital displays used for length mea-
surements have adjustable reading retention, aS fea-ture of substantial
value when the measured part di-mensions must be manually recorded.
Numerical Recording Systems for Electronic Gages The results of
measurements effected on a series of parts often need to be recorded for
reference pur-poses. Records are particularly important for call. bration
procedures. such as in the case of gage block verification. Digital displays are
sometimes used in conjunc-tion with compatible storage discs or printers.
These instruments may be simple. or they may be sophis-ticated, such as the
elements used In the gage block calibration set shown in Fig. 7-21. The
essential measuring function. comparing the size of a test part to that of a
master used for setting the instrument. is carried out by a standard elec-tronic
gage block comparator. The additional ele-ments are a digital display indicator
and interfaced to a personal computer with a dot matrix printer. Following the
necessary preparatory operations. which include the filling in of a calibration
certifi-cation form so that it contains all the required in-formation except the
actual size of the gage blocks to be Inspected, the semiautomated calibration
process may be started. From this stage on. the operator's role is limited to the
measurement of the Individual gage blocks by comparing their size to that of
the cor-responding master. The measured size difference. as indicated by the
meter of the amplifier can. at this stage. be transferred to the recording part of
the setup. The printer will insert the value and the sign of the measured
deviation Into the appropriate space of the certificate form and then index to
the position of the next size. A tolerance limit control is also a
part of the instrumentation that, when set previously to a
specific tolerance range. will cause the printer to add an
asterisk to the deviation value should that exceed the preset
tolerance limits. In addition to saving time, which can be
mean-ingful in the case of continuous gage-block calibra-
tion. the main advantage of the system lies in elim-inating
such sources of error associated with the manual recording
and the subseouent transcription of the visually observed
measurement results.
Recording Discrete Length Dimensions on a Strip Chart
When digital readout is not actually required but the
consecutive measuring results obtained in in-specting a
series of nominally identical parts should be recorded
mechanically, the use of a strip-chart re-corder may be
considered. Figure 7-22 shows an example of an electrical
re-corder with an in-process strip chart. the levels of the bar
plateaus indicating the sizes of the measured individual
dimensions. Such charts are produced with considerable
savings in time by avoiding errors that frequently occur in
manual recording. In addi-tion to providing an easy-to-
duplicate permanent re-cord of a measurement series, the
charts can also be used for a number of quality control
purposes. such as:
a. Presenting a synoptic image of the sizes of a batch of
parts in relation to the pertinent tolerance
b. limits represented on the chart by drawing two prop.
oily placed parallel lines: b. Determining the span of
size variations by drawing parallel lines tangent to the
highest and the lowest bar. respectively: and

Você também pode gostar