Rising labor costs, increased safety standards, pollution control requirements, and costly warranty teardowns have made 100% inspection of more components necessary. The changing technology of automatic gaging and the development of new gaging devices along with related peripheral equipment have increased the possibility of inspecting parts more reliably for more conditions and at a higher cycle rate than on previous equipment.
Some inspection equipment becomes part of a parts-handling system whereby the machine receives parts from previous automation, transfers them through the machine while inspecting, and deposits them onto the succeeding automation.
Other equipment serves as a gaging station interconnected to a transfer system with no parts handling. This type of system provides feedback signals for part disposition or evaluation.
Another type of machine is a “free-standing” automatic. No other parts-handling system is used and the parts are loaded either manually or by a parts feeder directly into the parts-handling system of the gaging machine. After inspection the parts are deposited into the customer's receiving equipment.