Dimensional Calibration.

Dimensional equipment – including items such as micrometers, calipers, ring gauges, plug gauges, digital indicators, levels and gauge blocks – is used in some way in nearly every manufacturing process.

The measurements taken from dimensional equipment play an important role in monitoring any deviations within manufacturing processes. Therefore, it’s crucial your dimensional equipment is regularly calibrated to ensure it remains delivering accurate results.

Temperature is the main consideration for any laboratory performing dimensional equipment calibrations – not only of the equipment or parts to be measured – but also the temperature of the measuring equipment standards and the temperature of the calibration environment.

To ensure the environment is consistent, measurements are taken in a 20°C temperature-controlled room or by making temperature corrections if the measurements are taken at a different temperature.

Further steps to ensure the temperature of dimensional equipment is kept consistent during calibration include wearing gloves to prevent heat transferring from hands to the item, and allowing the item to acclimatise to the temperature within the laboratory before the calibration takes place.

Gauge blocks are the master dimensional standard used in most calibration laboratories. Gauge blocks are sets of individual blocks where two opposing faces have been precisely ground flat and parallel so that the faces are an exact distance apart, giving a length accuracy of as low as a few micro-inches.