Automatic machine gaging

This paper discusses the advantages to be gained in certain types of large scale production by the substitution of automatic machine gaging for hand testing. For testing carbon protector blocks, a machine has been developed which accepts all blocks in case a certain dimension lies between 0.0024″ and 0.0032″ and rejects those when the dimension is 0.0023″ or less or 0.0033″ or more. This machine will effect a saving of $8000 per year over the cost of hand gaging on an output of 4,500,000 blocks. The saving effected by another recently developed machine replacing a manual test is approximately $1200 a year on a production of 2,500,000 pieces, but a far more important consideration than this money saving is the elimination of an operation so monotonous that it was difficult to keep any operator on it for more than a brief period. The author points out that in some instances automatic machine gaging of the entire product will cost less than a sampling inspection in which there must be included in the direct cost of inspection the cost of some additional supervision and control.