Geoff Williams, lecturer in engineering at Weymouth College, said: “The XT Digital Bore Gauge from Bowers Group is of great benefit to my students. It allows them to measure internal dimensions, including bore diameters, to exceptionally tight tolerances. We are delighted that Bowers Group has kindly donated the bore gauge to the college, and that they recognise the value in contributing to the quality education of the engineers of the future.
“It’s great that the students understand that time is money in industry, and that investing in a decent piece of kit can eliminate expensive mistakes, therefore reducing scrap. This guarantee of accurate measurement allows businesses to make up the cost of kit quickly, providing a great return on investment.”
As part of their engineering qualifications, the students at Weymouth College need to be able to demonstrate that they can carry out a range of measurement techniques and use the equipment competently. The college required students to carry out the inspection of a shallow 40 mm bore, but previously could only offer digital calipers to perform this task. Unfortunately, in relatively inexperienced hands, the digital calipers were not nearly reliable enough.
The college, therefore, needed an instrument that would be better suited to inexperienced hands, in order to achieve the measurement task required and enable the students to demonstrate their competence with metrology equipment to meet the demands of their engineering course.
Bowers Group supplied Weymouth College with an XT Digital Bore Gauge Set, with a measurement capacity of 20-50 mm.
Engineering student Louis Poulter said: “The Bowers Group bore gauge is clearly much more advanced than anything else available. It’s really accurate and reliable, so perfect for measuring the dimensions of components.”
To illustrate the fool proof nature of the bore gauge, two engineering students used it for the first time and compared measurements. Although they had only been briefly shown how to use it, the first time they handled the bore gauge and made a measurement revealed only a micron difference in their measurements.
More traditional methods of measurement, for example calipers, micrometres, and telescopic gauges, have their drawbacks in an educational environment. Although a skilled inspector can achieve accurate results with a good level of experience and practice, students often find them fiddly and struggle to achieve accurate, repeatable measurements.
