Measuring Flatness Of Sheet Metal

For example let s say you have 6061 t651 aluminum plate that must be produced at a certain flatness tolerance.

Measuring flatness of sheet metal.

The flatness control c defines how much a surface on a real part may vary from the ideal flat plane. This page explains how to do this as well as the advantages and disadvantages of using these instruments. When measuring flatness on your own there are simple techniques you can use. Perfect flatness is when all points of a surface lie in the same plane.

Precision flatness measurement is now a standard require ment in many parts of the metal industry. When working with sheet metal it is common for the term gauge to be used someone unfamiliar with the gauge system may not understand what is meant by 18 gauge steel for example. This alloy plate has a standard aluminum association tolerance of 1 for a thickness range from 0 25 to 0 624 and a tolerance of 075 for a thickness range of 0 625 to 8. When applied to a feature of size however it can actually be larger.

For example 72 inch wide material with a 100 000 psi yield strength can have a crossbow of 2 to 12 in wavy edges and excessive crown. When applied to a surface of a part the flatness must always be less than the dimensional tolerance. To help this blog will explain the gauge system and features a sheet metal gauge chart. The higher the numbered gauge a piece of metal is the thicker the piece is in millimeters.

In fact a hot rolled sheet coil generally reveals some or all symptoms of poor flatness see figure 1. Since rolled alloys also levels this product we work to the mill tolerances. Our mission is to provide reliable and accurate information helping the steel and metal producers to be more efficient produce better flatter products and improve internal and external communication of strip sheet and plate shape. Flatness tolerances for sheet are published only for full size sheets.

The flatness tolerance zone is the volume between two parallel planes. If you want to find out what gauge your sheet metal is measure its thickness using a regular tape measure. In general sheets 60 wide and under are to be no more than out of flat when laid on a flat surface. The gauge of a sheet of metal is a reference to how thick it is.

Accurate flatness measurement not only improves levels of quality assurance and customer satisfaction it also ensures a faster time to market and a speedy return on investment. Shapeline is dedicated to optical flatness measurement in the world s flat metal industry. Measuring flatness width and other geometric features ac. Plates can be out of flat for a number of reasons.