40 MM ARTILLERY SHELL

Gage Parameters

GAGING SYSTEM: Air, Electronic, Functional
OPERATION: Automatic
NUMBER OF CHECKS: 5
READOUT: CAGTM
CLASSIFICATION: Good/reject
FEATURES: 625 parts per hour measured automatically to determine accept and reject conditions for (5) features including a fully automated functional profile check.

The Challenge

Most munitions measurement is usually performed in an off line fashion using quick and easy flush pin depth gages or other simple attribute functions. But when this customer talked about 625 parts per hour needing 100% inspection, Edmunds gages engineers listened to the charge, knowing manual gages would not fulfill the requirements.

The Solution

A six station rotary transfer type automatic gage was designed that would accept this customer's parts from his conveying devices directly into our gaging machine. Parts were loaded into our dial, then transferred to 4 independent gage stations for measurement. The first station used air-to-electronic gaging to measure the tapered primer hole for diameter size at two elevations and the taper angle variation. At the next gaging station a profile feature was measured to determine the chamber bottom to be coplaner. The next gage station verified the clip groove to be the proper size and relative location to the chamber face. The last gage station included an actual functional receiver gage to verify the outer surface profile, relative to the firing chamber.

An Edmunds CAGTM (Computer Aided Gaging) amplifier recorded the measurement results from the 4 gage stations to provide an overall assessment of the part before sorting into accept or reject exit tracks.

The Result

The benefits of Edmunds CAG-driven automatic gaging system were three-fold. First, the implementation of this system allowed this customer to reduce scrap, thus increasing profitability of his process. Next the customer was able to document increased reliability of his product to his customer which lead to additional business. And lastly the reduction in gaging labor through implementation of this 100% automated sorting, allowed more features to be inspected than would have been allowed by manual labor, and allowed our customer to redirect his labor toward other cost savings measures in the process.