Maintenance

While your Interapid indicator is built to the highest of standards, like any good tool it needs proper care and maintenance to function at its best

Repairing an Interapid indicator

Accidents happen and even the Interapid indicator needs a visit to the shop sometimes. Dixon & Ryan is  the best to fix your Interapid.

How do I know if my Interapid needs repair?

While there are a lot of methods to determine this, a great place to start is the repeatability test. Begin by adjusting the bevel of your Interapid to zero. Now, place a small amount of pressure on the indicator and notice the dial move. Remove the pressure completely. Your Interapid should be reading at zero once again. If your Interapid is showing a reading above or below zero, it might be time to have a professional do some repair work

Can’t I just repair it myself?

The Interapid is a finely engineered piece of hardware built to the most exacting of specifications. Only a trained professional should ever attempt to repair an Interapid indicator. The team at Dixon & Ryan are trained and equipped to repair your Interapid indicator. Remember: your work is only as accurate as the tools you use to measure it. By having a professional like Dixon & Ryan repair your Interapid indicator you will enjoy the piece of mind that only comes with knowing that your tools are maintained by the best

Isn’t it cheaper to just replace the whole unit?

While it’s certainly possible that a whole new unit is the more economical choice, this is seldom the case. A quality repair shop like Dixon & Ryan can typically perform repairs for well less than half the price of a full replacement.

Calibrating an Interapid indicator

If Interapid indicators are so accurate, why do they need to be calibrated?

When dealing with extreme levels of accuracy, any tool needs to be regularly calibrated. Our system of lengths and measures is based on physical constants such as the distance the light travels in a second. While these constants are unchanging, the tools we use to measure them are not. All materials expand and contract due to changes in temperature, humidity, and other factors like oxidation of metals. What calibration does, it is adjusts the tool to compensate for these variations.

Imagine a clock that is always running 5 minutes fast. While it technically never displays the correct time, you can mentally subtract 5 minutes every time you look at it. This is effectively “calibrating” your brain: you’re adjusting your measurement in consideration of additional factors.

Calibrating your Interapid indicator means making adjustments to how it measures your products in order to ensure an accurate measurement every time.

What happens if I don’t calibrate my instruments properly?

Sometimes small differences can have a huge impact, for example: driving your car over a pebble doesn’t make any noticeable difference, but put a pebble in your shoe and you’ll be miserable pretty quickly. What makes the difference? Scale. While you’re much bigger than a pebble, the difference between you and a pebble isn’t as great as the difference between a pebble and a car.

Interapid indicators are accurate to 0.02MM, which is a third the width of a human hair! This means that even the tiniest of variations can have a huge impact on the quality of your products. The problem becomes even more severe as you move down the line: one inaccurate part by itself might not make a difference, but in complex machines what happens if multiple parts are the wrong size? What first seemed like a small problem can quickly become a disaster.

Finally there is the most important issue of all: pride. Your clients hire your company to provide them with products at a particular level of quality. While your measurements might indicate that you have given them that quality, what would happen if the client’s measurements show them to be inaccurate? Having your Interapid indicator professionally calibrated gives you the confidence that you’re doing the best job possible.

Can’t I just calibrate it myself?

While you can attempt to calibrate the unit on your own, it’s an extremely difficult process that requires specialized tools, training and the proper environment. As stated earlier, all materials expand and contract with changes in temperature and humidity. This means that a change in temperature can make your calibration futile, in fact you could be making it worse! Also, calibration is a time consuming process and is very difficult to learn, rather than spending your time on learning calibration procedures you can send your equipment to an accredited calibration laboratory like Dixon & Ryan.

A professional calibration service like Dixon & Ryan has the temperature and humidity controlled conditions to ensure that your Interapid indicator is calibrated to standards set by the National Institute of Science and Technology (N.I.S.T).

Requesting a quote is fast and easy.

• Step 1: Submit Quick Quote Form
• Step 2: Ship Gauge per Instructions
• Step 3: Gauge Received, Exact Price Quoted
• Step 4: Gauge Repaired, Shipped, Customer is Happy!