HIGH ACCURACY DIGITAL BORE GAUGES FOR USE WITHIN HOSTILE ENVIRONMENTS

Koso Kent Introl Limited: Based in West Yorkshire, UK Koso Kent Introl Limited (KKI) was originally formed in 1967 under the name Introl Ltd. The company specialises in the supply of standard service control valves, severe service control valves, high-technology surface choke valves and high-performance rotary valves, for the Oil, Gas, Petrochemical and Power Industries.

The company’s high quality products are manufactured using a wide range of materials, from carbon steel to nickel alloys and high-strength super-austenitic material. Company valves can be supplied to withstand working pressures of up to 300 bar, with special high-pressure globe and angle valves available for oil applications of up to 800 bar working pressure. Valves are able to be supplied for a wide range of problematic applications, relating to cavitation, flashing, erosion, high velocity, noise, vibration or for processes which involve high pressures, high-temperatures, sub-zero temperatures or solid-contaminated fluids.

When recently faced with the need to extend their bore gauging capabilities, Company Production Engineer Paul Skitmore contacted the world’s leading manufacturer of bore gauges; Bradford based Bowers Metrology. Paul explained. “As all of our machine operators have responsibility for the quality of their own output, we needed to find a range of accurate digital bore gauges that would be able to stand-up to in-process use on components situated within machine tools, and yet have the high accuracy and repeatability required for final inspection checks. We found the answer to our needs in the Bowers XT Xtreme range.  

Available to measure internal diameters of up to 300mm. XT Xtreme’s advanced new electronics boast a very impressive IP65 rating, rendering them resistant to coolant, water and airborne particles. Claimed by Bowers to be the ideal digital bore gauge for use within hostile measuring environments, such as in close proximity to machine tools, amongst a long list of useful features incorporated into these radical tough instruments are a clear digital display, metric/inch conversion, an RS 232 output and hardwearing extended travel carbide measuring anvils.

Mr Skitmore continued.  “As failure in the field of any of our products could prove disastrous, we apply the most stringent quality control regime and regularly invest in the best possible Quality Control equipment.   We were aware of the high quality of Bowers previous generation of bore gauges and were delighted to hear about the new XT range’s ability to measure bores on components situated within our machine tools, areas that would preclude the use of other digital gauges. Now in daily use, our staff has found the new Bowers gauges easy to use, accurate and repeatable. Also, as we produce a lot of internal threads and grooves, I was happy to find that Bowers will also manufacture inexpensive ‘one-off’ XT instruments to cater for other problematic internal measuring applications.”

For more information about the XT Xtreme, click here.

Published on October 23, 2009 10:31 updated on November 04, 2009 10:35