I am a new quality manager of a calibration laboratory. Recently, I have been working on updating our old gage block procedure to include the new ASME B89.1.9 tolerances and grades. However, it appears some of our competitors are still using the old grades (Grade 0,1,2,3). Are most cal labs adopting these changes or ignoring them? It has been out for four years. We want to be up to date with new standards, but not at a disadvantage versus other labs since most of our customers aren't aware of the change and may not be willing to transition. Overall, I would like to know how accepted this change has been in the gage block community.
Michelle
We didn't catch on to the new standard until last year ourselves. In terms of just the tolerance grades, we calibrate the blocks to whatever grade the customer asks for. We see old sets that were manufactured when GGG-G-15 was in effect. If the customer wants the the tolerances from this old standard applied to his set, we do it. We have seen quite a mixture, but still the new tolerance grades are a minority.
As organizations have to purchase new blocks, they are going to encounter the new tolerances. But this may be years coming.
It may be something that you announce to your customers, or contact the customers as the blocks come in. In any case, it may add more extra work unnecessarily. I've found that many customers aren't totally aware of the significance of the tolerance grades and the accuracy associated with them. When I speak with some customers, we find that their sets are not accurate enough or much more accurate than is needed.
I'm more concerned myself with some labs I've seen not reporting Variation in Length (VIL). One lab manager I spoke with asked why I was requesting it, and that no one ever asked for it. A unfortunately high premium was demanded to include this in the calibration. (Naturally, I went elsewhere)