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In our previous posts, we explained a bit about mastering measuring tool usage and how to fixture the tool or workpiece to ensure accurate measurement. Here, we will take a look at what calibration means — and how simple field-checking is different but equally important.

Calibration

Sometimes a quality technician or tool maker will pick up a gauge block, measure it with a pair of calipers, adjust the zero, and say it is now ‘calibrated.’ This is definitely not a calibrating process. In fact, it does not even qualify as field-checking.

Calibration is a costly and time-consuming process, which takes place in a specialized laboratory under controlled testing conditions. In calibration, measuring equipment usually has to be stabilized to a specific temperature for a specific period of time before they are used to conduct very specific measurements.

Tools that pass calibration are certified to provide you accurate measurements at the time of certification. Most production companies have a proper calibration performed on all their critical measuring devices at least once a year to ensure the measurement equipment is considered reliable.

Field-Checking

Field-checking is typically conducted in the quality area by employees and is not equivalent to professional calibration. The most common type of field check involves making two significantly different measurements as well as a zero measurement when possible. If all measurements are correct, it provides a strong indication that the measuring tool is functioning as expected. A field check ensures the internal measuring components are functioning properly.

Tools that pass a field check demonstrate they are highly likely to provide you with accurate measurements. This process is best used when a measuring tool has been used for a while, removed from storage, or is considered suspect for any reason.

Routsis Training has developed innovative hands-on training labs for Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced Measuring Tools. There is no better way to ensure your personnel know how to obtain accurate measurements. These training labs are also part of the Quality curriculum in our Professional Certification Portals, which deliver essential training and benchmarking to your entire workforce.

As discussed in our previous post, a good understanding of measuring tools is essential knowledge for your personnel — and critical to ensuring quality plastic parts wind up in your customers’ hands. Here, we will go into a bit more detail about fixturing the workpiece to ensure accurate measurement.

It’s Hard To Hit a Moving Target

It is very common to see someone taking measurements with a set of calipers in one hand and a plastic part in the other, yet this is not the best practice.

When someone holds something in their hand, it moves around — which causes inconsistency and potential inaccuracy when attempting a measurement. Holding both the measuring tool and product being measured in your hands compounds these inaccuracies.

The best practice is to keep either the measuring tool or the product being measured stationary.

Securing the Workpiece

Products such as a molded part, extrusion profile, or cavity block can often reman stationary by simply setting it on a flat table or surface plate. Awkward products can often set into a simple fixture or vise. When lots of measurements are to be take place, it is very common to have a custom fixture either 3D printed or machined from a block of plastic or aluminum.

Securing the Measuring Tool

In many cases fixturing the measuring tool can be easier. Tools such as height gauges and step micrometers are easy to just set on a surface plate to stabilize them. Measuring tools like micrometers, gauges, and calipers can benefit from the use of specialized holders and stands which hold the measurement device in place while the measurement is taking place. Essentially if the product being measured cannot be stationary, then the measurement device must be stationary to ensure the most accurate measurement.

Routsis Training has developed innovative hands-on training labs for Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced Measuring Tools. There is no better way to ensure your personnel know how to obtain accurate measurements. These training labs are also part of the Quality curriculum in our Professional Certification Portals, which deliver essential training and benchmarking to your entire workforce.

Of all aspects of our industry, quality is inarguably most important. After all, if you are not delivering quality plastics products to your customers, your customers will go elsewhere. But how can plastics manufacturers guarantee quality parts? In those most basic sense, we need to inspect parts and ensure they meet customer requirements. To accomplish this, we need to use various devices — the most fundamental of which are measuring tools.

Understanding Measuring Tools

At Routsis Training, we see it time and time again: Most of the people measuring plastic products know almost nothing about the tools they are using. This can lead to mismeasurement, improper readings, and inaccuracies due to misuse, damage, and premature wear.

Mastery of any skill begins with a basic working knowledge. In the case of measuring devices, this includes knowing the basic components and the terminology used to describe the device and its functionality.

The Path to Mastery

Understanding the basic construction, modes of operation, and expected accuracy of each device is essential, prerequisite knowledge: Employees need to properly understand these tools before taking a single critical measurement. It’s the only way they (and the customer) can have confidence in the measurements they obtain. The difference between good and bad measurements is the difference between good and bad product getting into your customers’ hands. And bad parts are bad business.

In order to ensure accurate measurements, your quality personnel need to know how the device should be held, how the workpiece should be fixtured, and how to correctly interpret the results. In addition, they need to understand the correct procedures for handling, storing, and maintaining the measuring device. Otherwise, factors such as corrosion, rust, damage, and warpage will render the tool useless — and possibly require expensive replacement.

Once they understand these essential points, they are well on their way to mastering the tool. All that’s needed is practice, practice, practice.

Routsis Training has developed innovative hands-on training labs for Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced Measuring Tools. There is no better way to ensure your personnel know how to obtain accurate measurements. These training labs are also part of the Quality curriculum in our Professional Certification Portals, which deliver essential training and benchmarking to your entire workforce.

Does your company give lip-service to cleanliness and organization or does it take it seriously every day? In this post, we’ll take a look at ways in which tidiness can save your company time and money, and increase the safety of your workplace.

Merriam-Webster defines cleanliness as ‘the quality or state of being clean.’ A clean workplace is one in which normal operations can take place without concerns of contamination or injury resulting from the current state of cleanliness.

The expectations at each production facility are a little different, but the common expectations are as follows: clean floors, clean surfaces, and clean equipment. In practice, this means no oils, liquids, pellets, dust, or clutter anywhere on the production floor.

Clean Floors

All floors must be kept clean regularly with scheduled sweeping and mopping. Sweeping the floor is good, but mopping is one of the most effective ways to reduce the overall amount of dust and airborne particulates on the production floor. Never use air hoses to clean the floors, as they generate a large amount of airborne particulates that eventually become contaminate surfaces, internal components, and plastic materials.

Clean Surfaces

Every visible and accessible machine surface should be cleaned thoroughly. There must be a schedule and procedure for cleaning everything on your production floor: from wiping the tables to cleaning the protective guards on your machinery. When potential customers visit your plant, they check for dust in non-obvious areas, such as the top of your machine guards or behind an inspection table.

Clean Equipment

The equipment on the production floor needs to be in good working condition and look that way. Rusty molds, damaged robots, and red-tagged thermolators should not be commonplace in your production environment. The production floor is for things which are to be used for production.

Broken or faulty equipment is effectively clutter if it is just sitting around on the production floor. Keep in mind that your customers usually won’t tell you the place is dusty or cluttered — they will just start moving their jobs somewhere else.

Organization

Organization is not a static state, but a continuous process: The goal should always be continuous improvement. There are multiple levels of organization, the first is to determine what things below, second is to have that place for things, and third is to always look for better places to keep things.

Everything on the production floor should have immediate purpose. Organization starts with only having what you need on the production floor. Everything that does not belong is either thrown away or stored somewhere else.

Next, each important item that remains on your production floor should have its own convenient, specifically-designated place. ‘A place for everything and everything in its place’ has additional meaning when applied to a production environment.

The most important part of continuous improvement is to find better ways to do things. This includes better ways to store and access things on the production floor. You may keep tools like brass rods and wire brushes in a box near the machine — and this may be helpful and convenient — but a shadow-board on the machine where items can be accessed immediately might be even better.

Always keep an eye out for better ways to clean and organize the production floor: improving accessibility, using the available area more efficiently, and reducing the chance that conditions will degrade.

These concepts are part of the 5S lean manufacturing methodology. Routsis Training has developed an excellent training series, The 5S System. Based on our exclusive SkillSet™ learning model, these innovative labs combine online training with hands-on worksheets.