 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Since we started in 1982 we have been presented with many unusual problems from industrial personnel, some of these, together with our solutions, are difficult to classify under a heading so here are a number of problems we have been asked to solve.
1) Plastic composite moulded bar strength testing,
2) Measuring hole size in very flexible material,
3) Measuring moisture content of sugar,
4) Digital tyre pressure? Page 2 >>
5) How much beer left in the keg?!
6) Rolls of sticky tape testing over 14 years!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1) Testing the strength of moulded plastic, carbon fibre reinforced bars:
Linpac Mouldings needed to quickly check that the strength of 10 mm diameter plastic bars it manufactured were within safety limits. They had been using a tensile test machine but the time taken and the cost of the machine were prohibitive for production purposes.
We designed and built a fixture and electronic-pneumatic control and display unit which automatically gradually increased the force applied to the specimen and displayed the deflection of the bar until the required deflection had been reached, the force (Newtons) was then stored and displayed digitally along with the pass or fail lamps. The customer was delighted to see that this instrument also showed the individual carbon fibres breaking as the test proceeded. As always the calibration was to national standards.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
2) Checking the hole size in flexible materials:
A customer needed to check the hole size in baby teats, for many years they had used an optical microscope to check a sample from production, now they needed to check 100% and their existing method was just too slow.
The answer we devised was quite straight forward, we designed a fixture to grip and seal the teat edges and using a low pressure clean air source, pressurise the teat and then measure the flow rate. As the flow rate is proportional to the area of the hole a simple display with pass and fail lamps proved more than adequate and the test time was reduced from 2 minutes, at best, to 3 seconds! At a total cost less than the price of the display microscope. Further units were purchased for other production lines.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3) Measuring the moisture content of imported sugar:
A food processor needed to know how much finings to add to his process to get the sugar product to the required moisture level, they had been using an evaporative infrared balance, It was slow and could only test samples.
After much thought the only way to get a 100% moisture measurement of the product was to use microwave absorption techniques, especially as the process would not allow the sacks to be opened or holed in any manner. We presented the solution but in this case the cost excluded this option as the customer had expected a cost of a few hundred pounds not some thousands! The customer continued to measure using the balance technique even though wastage continued to be a costly problem.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
March Designs & Measurements
Unit 11, Alfred Street
Dunstable
Beds LU5 4HZ England
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|