How do I calibrate Checking Fixtures?

J

Jane Doe

#11
Believe me, the Avatar suits me,lol
Thanks for the feedback. I think right now our plan is to inspect them every six months for wear, damage etc. and with a master part. We decided to only calibrate if there is a problem. We have over a hundred (and still counting)of these fixtures and it's around $500 to CMM the fixture, so it is an incredible expense to do them all even every 5 years. I will definately be running this by my registrar.
:topic: On a side note, I just took a course for certified audit team leader and the gentleman teaching the course was one of the people who sat on Sub committee 176 who wrote the ISO 9001 standard (canadian rep). I got to hear alot of how the standard was to be interpreted. It was extremely clarifying for me. It was worth every penny of the course for that info alone.

Allie
 
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J

Jim Howe

#12
calibration of fixtures

Interesting topic. We use a multitude of fixtures for checking and assembling finished product. For the most part these fixtures are designed and dimensionally checked. Then product is built and/or checked with the new fixture. The product is then verified with the customer for form, fit and function. If all is well the fixture is pronounced A-OK and placed into production. Since these fixtures are made from solid steel (1.00 to 3.00" thick) wear is a minumum. No further calibration is required unless customer changes form, fit or function that forces a change in tooling. Works well for us. :cool:
 

gpainter

Quite Involved in Discussions
#13
We had a lot of check fixtures where I worked before and we just checked to verify the measurement that the fixture was checking was still correct in the fixture set-up.
 
J

jane_ackerman - 2010

#14
It depends...

It all depends on the style of the check fixture and what it does.
For those that have location features built-in and those with more complicated features (such as true position), I outsource them to the OEM. They usually keep the CMM program for such purposes and simply re-run it and provide a new layout. If this is not an option, you could try finding a CMM house to do it for you (if you don't have a qualified CMM Technician in your company).

Additionally, I have several (what I call) "holding" fixtures (not an official gage name) that some people might consider "check fixtures". I consider a holding fixture to be something that simply stabilizes the part from moving, in order to obtain a reading, from perhaps, an indicator.
If the "holding" fixture has no impact on my reading, then I only calibrate the indicator and label the fixture as "holding fixture". I have been a Gage Tech for 12 yrs and have gone through the pains of becoming QS certified at 2 different companies and have never been received a non-conformance for this during an audit. We'll see what happens when we have our TS audit in 2 weeks : )

Fixtures such as bench centers (for holding cylindrical parts) should have their centers verified to each other. I do this by first measuring the diameter of the center probe on each end. Then I measure from the top of the center probe to the base of the bench center. After that, subtract half of the center probe diameter. Subtract your readings from one side to the other to obtain the difference and compare to your tolerance.

Hope this helps a little.
 
J

Jane Doe

#15
Our fixtures are the same, solid steel, not a whole lot of wear. They check length, contour and position of certain hardware (sensor bosses, these are exhaust tubes.) I am quite confident that these can withstand the wear and tear until a new program is launched and they are considered obsolete. It's not like they will be used for 20 years or anything. 3-5 years tops.
 
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