ELECTRONICS TUNE UP PISTON INSPECTION.

One company which has recently taken steps to improve the effectiveness of its inspection and quality control procedures is Hepworth & Grandage Ltd of Bradford. The company, which is part of the Associate Engineering Group, produces more than 100,000 pistons/week for the automobile industry. So with this sort of output it is constantly on the lookout for ways to improve quality standards while reducing the time, money and effort involved. The company decided to replace its dial gauge indicators, which were slow, costly and required a good deal of skill to set and operate, by electronic column gauges. Gauges of this sort offer advantages in that they can measure several dimensions at one setting, instantly show whether a part is acceptable or not and are much easier to read. On the last point, tolerances of say 0. 0002 in. can be made to register as a 2 in. band on the column - so taking the judgment out of measuring decisions.