Dial Caliper or Digital Caliper - Which is the best?

J

jhoniegudel

#1
Dear all,

I will try to use dial caliper for replacement digital caliper.
Does anyone know which is better? (Investment Cost, Preventive Cost, and Life Time)..

Thank's
JHonie
 
Elsmar Forum Sponsor
#2
Re: Which is the best ? Dial Caliper or Digital Caliper?

Does anyone know which is better?
I suppose that depends on how and for what you intend to use it...

Personally, I prefer the digitals but that is mainly due to poor eyesight. Their main disadvantage used to be that they gobbled up batteries very fast, but I don't think that is an issue these days.

Durability? Who knows... There are fewer moving parts in the digitals, of course.

/Claes
 
Q

qualityengineer

#3
Re: Which is the best ? Dial Caliper or Digital Caliper?

Digital caliper is more visible comparing the dial caliper, and the main advantage of it, is that discrimination of digital calipes is higher. It depends on the tolerances of the dimension whether digital or dial caliper is preferrable. If the discrimination of the gage is sufficient for the tolerance thant it would be an unnecesarry investment to use the digital. Generally cost of the digitals are higher.
 
J
#4
Dear all,

I will try to use dial caliper for replacement digital caliper.
Does anyone know which is better? (Investment Cost, Preventive Cost, and Life Time)..

Thank's
JHonie

I have come to prefer digitals over dials for several reasons.
1) Easier to read: Less chance of a reading error
2) Durability: There are virtually no moving parts. No gears for dust and dirt to fill and damage
3) Flexability: Most switch from inch to mm easily plus you can set zero at any point which can be very convenient for measuring c'line distance between holes.

I don't feel that the discrimination of dial vs digital calipers is sufficient in most uses to to matter.
Also, most new calipers use 1 small (SR44) battery that is inexpensive and last quite a while.
Cost can be a factor, however there is a company we have bought quite few calipers from called "Harbor Freight". They have 6" digitals for under $20 US. They are on the internet.

Hope this helps

James
 
T

True Position

#5
My one complaint about most digital tools is the 'set zero wherever you like' feature. While very helpful if you know what you are doing, I've worked in far too many shops when a mis-zero'ed digital caliper or micrometer ran a lot of scrap parts. Micrometers(larger the 1 inch/25mm) are especially epidemic for this problem.

My previous employer only used traditional tools for just that reason. We had to let a digital from engineering out in the floor, within a week that problem came up.

If you go digital, be sure to errorproof that issue as best you can.
 
5

56flh

#6
Dear all,

I will try to use dial caliper for replacement digital caliper.
Does anyone know which is better? (Investment Cost, Preventive Cost, and Life Time)..

Thank's
JHonie
One of the machinists at our facility has an old digital that he's been using for over 15 years now so longevity probably isn't an issue, but cost would be a bit of a difference. Some of the name-brand digital units can be somewhat more costly, but an advantage to digital is its ability to give you direct SPC information. I don't consider batteries a maintenance cost. We supply batteries and replace worn personal measuring instruments at company expense since accuracy has a direct impact on product quality. I do find more accuracy/repair problems with chips/fines getting into the dial caliper rack and dial system than I see with the digital caliper's smooth beam.
 

CarolX

Super Moderator
Super Moderator
#8
One of the drawbacks of digitals is they read out to 4 decimal places. Calipers have too much inherent operator error to be this accurate. On the other hand, there is no error in reading a digital. Digitals are usually more expensive, although sounds like James found some reasonably priced units.
 
K

Kevin H

#9
I haven't used any measuring tools from Harbor Freight, so have no experience with them. On the other hand, from a tool viewpoint HF is not known for the robustness/quality of the tools they sell - primarily inexpensive tools manufactured in the Far East. I'd hesitate to use a fine measuring instrument purchased from them until I had done an MSA with the instrument in question. One purchase Starret, Mitotuyo, Fowler, etc. measuring instruments for a reason.

From a digital versus dial stand point, I'd prefer digital. I beleive they provid better operator discrimination of the readings.
 
M

martin elliott

#10
Another aspect which may need to be considered is the effect of apparently higher "accuracy" of digital instrumentation on the overall manufacturing process capability.

I have seen considerable improvements in manufacturing process capability when we switched from calipers to digital micrometers without any actual change in the process by simplyly improving GR&R from 10% to 3%

So if your current process was borderline using digital you run the risk of dropping under capability limit if the accuracy of instrument is degraded.
 
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