Go/no-go inspection gage

The problem

Bent exhaust tube went straight from the CNC bender into welded assembly. When the bender drifted out of calibration nothing caught it — the misalignment appeared at final assembly, by which point the entire welded exhaust was scrap. The defect was being found at the most expensive possible moment.

What we built

A portable gage verifies bend geometry and tube diameter straight off the bender, before any welding. Drop the tube in, clamp, check profile and depth against hard datums — no measurement to interpret, no CMM time. Datum coordinates engraved into the plate; an onboard 20 mm depth-gage calibration block lets the gage be verified at the station instead of sent out.

The result

When the bender drifts, the gage catches it on the next part — not after a shift's worth of assemblies are welded up.

Scope of work

• Design, fixture and gage design
• Assembly
• Technical documentation
• Machined components produced by a local CNC shop