Air gaging is one of the earliest forms of precision measurement and these systems have been employed on shop floors since the 1940s. In fact, it was the earliest form of submicron measurement and most of the air plug configurations developed during that era have not undergone major changes. If you are searching for an air gaging system, chances are products such as single master air gaging systems may have caught your attention. Before going into the specifics, here’s a quick recap on how air gaging works:
How Does Air Gaging Work?
When a jet of air is blown into an object, the pressure of that air will drop as the distance of the object increases. Air gaging systems are designed to maintain the consistency of that air pressure by precisely controlling various elements, such as machined characteristics, location, air jet, pressure, and more. This ensures that precise measurements can be reproduced in a manufacturing environment.
What are Single Master Air Gaging Systems and their Benefits?
Now that your memory of air gaging systems has been refreshed, let’s move on to their single master variants. These systems typically have the accuracy built into both the air gage display and air tooling. During the manufacturing process, these components are set to specific pneumatic characteristics. In other words, the displays will only work with pneumatically matched tooling. Due to how single master air gaging systems are built, one can set it to true pneumatic zero.
With that in mind, below is a quick look at the various benefits that single master air gaging systems can provide for their users:
- Users can verify the performance of the display units with certifiable restrictor kits and tools
- Recessed jets reduce clogging problems and other forms of damage
- Features greater jet clearance for longer tooling life
- Worn tooling body does not affect magnification
- Uses medium-to-high air pressure to clean parts (approximately 30 psi)
- Great response speed
- Doesn’t require additional masters for monitoring tooling performance
- Offers excellent stability; readings do not shift after being set
- Maintains linearity well over entire range
- Extremely easy to set up
How Has Air Gaging Evolved Over the Years?
The main elements that have changed over the years are the capabilities of air gaging systems and their readouts. Modern digital readouts offer significantly higher resolutions and more range. In addition, they have amplifiers that provide additional functions, such as switching between ID and OD display modes with a single switch; performing dynamic checks without needing to calculate results; and even displaying actual part sizes. These improvements have certainly made air gaging tasks much easier and faster to complete and most importantly, allow technicians to achieve better results at the end of the day.
Whatever the case may be; whether you purchase a single master or dual master air gaging system, the readout and tooling devices of the air gages must be manufactured to the highest standards. In addition, the air systems are atmospherically balanced and are not susceptible to minute pressure changes.