Air Gages

Sliced Bread And the Limits of Air Gaging

"Air gaging is the greatest thing since sliced bread," a friend once told me.  And he was right — air gaging is good.  It's fast, high resolution, non-contact, self-cleaning and...

Checking Nozzle Balance

1. Calibrate the air gaging system using the max and min masters in a normal manner. 2. Orient the tool with a horizontal centerline so the jets are situated vertical...

Checking Air Gages Centrality

1. Calibrate the air gaging system using the max and min masters in a normal manner. 2. Orient the tool with a horizontal centerline and with the jets located horizontally...

You Won’t Err With Air

It is perfectly natural that machinists should have an affinity for mechanical gages. To a machinist, the working of a mechanical gage is both straightforward and pleasing. Air gages, on...

Flexibility of Air Gaging

Previously, we touched on several applications where air gaging is particularly practical. These include relational, as opposed to dimensional, measurements, such as distance between centers, taper and concentricity. Along with...

Air is Free, but Not Carefree

We concluded that air gaging represents the method of choice for most high-resolution measurements on large production runs. While quite durable and reliable compared to mechanical gages, air gaging is...

Air Gaging for Itty-Bitty Holes

Conventional air gaging for measuring inside diameters is typically limited to a minimum size of about 0.060"/1.52mm: below that, it becomes difficult to machine air passages in the plug tooling,...

Choosing the Right Air Gage

Air gaging has many advantages as an inspection method. It is quick and easy to use, requiring little skill on the part of the operator. It is highly adaptable to...

The 3 D's of Straightness Plugs

We have touched on different applications of air gaging: size, match gaging and form applications such as taper. In this column, we'll discuss air straightness plugs. The typical out-of-straightness condition...

Checking for Centralization and Balance Errors

Air gaging is often referred to as a non-contact form of measurement. This is accurate, to the extent that there's no metal-to-metal contact between a sensitive gage component and the...

Air Gaging vs. Contact Gaging

Contact gaging measures the dimension from surface roughness peaks of the part being measured (i.e. at plane A - A). Open nozzle air gaging measures the mean surface of the...

Putting Air Gages to Work

In this article, we examined the history and fundamental principles of air gaging as well as the various styles of air gaging systems in use today. This discussion will focus...

Air Gaging Applications

Inside and Outside Diameters Air gages are most commonly used for measuring the size and form of inside diameters (IDs) and outside diameters (ODs). Two-nozzle air plugs, with nozzles diametrically...