Measurement

The independent measurement services offered by the laboratory are accredited by UKAS and use the same precision measuring equipment used for calibration. Work undertaken by the laboratory includes:

  • Independent third party inspection service for users of gears.
  • Verification of gear measurement results for gear manufacturers.
  • Resolving disputes between measurement results, often between customer and manufacturer.
  • Identify features likely to cause excessive noise.
  • Reverse engineering gears and splines to determine micro and macro gear geometry and design intent.
  • Failure investigation work.
  • Research into gear measurement strategies.

We are able to measure a range of products including:

  • Spur and helical involute gears.
  • Straight and spiral bevel gears.
  • Involute and non-involute worms.
  • Worm wheels.
  • Shaping cutters.
  • Shaving cutters.
  • Hobs.
  • Involute splines.
  • Straight sided serrations.
  • Free form scanned surfaces (such as tooth roots).
  • General co-ordinate measurement by scanning or point measurement.
  • Surface roughness.

Measurements include standard inspection of the products (profile, helix, pitch and tooth thickness) and evaluating them in accordance with the relevant standard (ISO, AGMA or DIN) or more focussed measurements to determine root radius, flank topography or identify other features that are relevant to product performance or the manufacturing process.

Single flank measurement techniques can be applied to many gear types and this powerful method can be used to identify features that are likely to cause noise during service, or faults on manufacturing equipment. The laboratory uses a Klingelnberg PEW02 single flank instrument to measure single flank composite errors