Re: Gage R&R for an On-Line Device - Continuous Monitoring Dew Point Sensor in a Furn
George, many furnace processes used in heat treating metals utilize atmospheres generated either by mixing industrial gases such as nitrogen and hydogen, or nitrogen and other additives such as methanol and or natural gas. Other options include disassociating ammonia into nitrogen and hydrogen or cracking either natural gas or propane over a nickel catalyst at high temperatures - depending on conditions the reaction may be exothermic or endothermic. The gases produced are usually referred to by the name of the reaction.
One of the controls for these types of furnace atmospheres is the dewpoint in the furnace. This may be analyzed periodically using an instrument such as an Alnor dewpoint meter, or monitored continuously via an aoutomatic dewpoint measurement. Dew points will tell you if your atmosphere production equipment is operating properly, and can indicate if their is an air leak in the furnace that could affect final properties of the material being processed. This is true for both ferrous and non-ferrous parts.
Dew point control may be used while annealing, carburizing, and neutral hardening, and during sintering of PM parts. A typical dewpoint for the incoming industrial gas nitrogen would be -80 dgrees F. You won't see that in most furnaces, because many are belt or other types of furnace that operate at slight positive pressure to minimize infiltration of oxygen from the air surrounding the equipment. Their will be air infiltration, and some of the oxygen in the air will react with hydrogen in the furnace atmosphere to produce water vapor, which will increase the dew point in the furnace.
Having said all that, I'm not certain of any way to run a gage R & R on a continuous monitoring dew point instrument - I'd be more interested in the calibration and verification protocol, and corrective actions for variation from verification checks. If it got way out of calibration, you'd probably be producing bad parts from your process - oxide coatings, low hardness, poor sinter, etc.