Why Use Air Gaging? Who Uses It and Where

Air gaging is a fast, reliable way to measure tight-tolerance parts, typically those with tolerances of .005″ or less. Resolution and repeatability can reach the millionths of an inch, and the result doesn't depend on who's holding the gage.

Ten reasons to use air gaging

• Fast. A measurement takes seconds, which makes 100% inspection of high-volume parts practical, often right at the machine.
• High precision. Air gages repeat in the sub-micron range.
• No special training. Different operators get the same or nearly the same result on the same part, which takes operator technique out of the measurement. That's a real problem with micrometers and dial bore gages.
• Easy to use. Master the gage, insert, read.
• Non-contact. Soft, highly polished and thin-walled parts aren't marked or distorted.
• Self-cleaning. The air blows coolant and debris off the measured surface, saving prep time.
• No moving parts. With clean, consistent air, air tooling lasts for years.
• Small diameters. Bores under .6 mm can be measured.
• Tapers. Displayed in degrees, minutes and seconds, taper per foot and more.
• Form, not just size. Taper, parallelism, squareness, flatness and matching of components. See measuring form with air gaging.

Who uses air gaging?

Manufacturers who mass-produce tight-tolerance parts, particularly in automotive, aerospace, hydraulics and medical work. It's also used on complex features such as tapers even outside high-volume production, because parts can be measured so quickly and easily.

Where is it used?

• On the shop floor at a bench, for first-piece or 100% inspection depending on volume.
• In automated cells with robotic loading, sending offsets back to the machine for lights-out production. See automation and air gaging.
• In the gage lab, to verify parts from the floor.

New to the technology? Start with how air gaging works.