'SHOP-FLOOR' PROOF MEASUREMENT OF HIGH-TOLERANCE INTERNAL BORES

RT Quaife Engineering Ltd: For more than forty-four years, whether on two wheels or four, the name Quaife has been synonymous with high performance automotive transmission systems. Since 1965, the aims of the well-known company have been constant, to strive for excellence within the high-tech world of cutting edge transmission manufacturing.

Consistent hard work, dedication and investment - both in advanced machinery and human capital - have transformed the once one-man company into today’s global leader within the demanding motorsport industry. Now employing a seventy strong skilled workforce, RT Quaife Engineering Ltd currently export an impressive 75% of the company’s output.

The Quaife company began trading after a chance suggestion from the then Norton motorcycle specialist Ray Petty, prompted company founder, Rod Quaife into specialising in motorcycle gearbox design and production. Rod Quaife’s renowned engineering skills and entrepreneurial knowhow ensured that the new company - RT Quaife Engineering Ltd - quickly began producing the first Quaife product; an ingenious transmissions that converted four-speed Norton gearboxes into five-speed units. By now, Quaife was producing components for the AMC Motorcycle factory in Woolwich, whilst Norton's great competitor, Triumph Motorcycles, also expressed an interest, ordering five speed gear clusters for its famous Daytona racing machines. After taking the first three places at the race that year, Triumph purchased the rights for the five-speed cluster.

From the company’s pioneering motorcycle related beginnings, Quaife are now heavily involved in all global aspects of two and four wheel motorsport, covering the vast majority of road, track and off-road motorsport activities. Based on its rich heritage of involvement in motorsport, the company fully understand the technical needs of its customers and competitors, and through the company’s busy design department, Quaife consistently delivers leading-edge transmission components and assemblies.

Quaife now offers an extremely wide range of high-quality products including complete universal gearboxes in FWD, RWD, 4WD and transaxle variants, plus differential units and retrofittable gear kits suitable for a wide range of car makes and models.

Given the high demands placed on the transmissions of all types of motorsport vehicles, the company guards against failure-in-use of its high-precision units, not only through the ingenious design work applied to the company’s products, but also through Quaife’s stringent Quality Control regime. From the testing of incoming raw materials, through the operators’ regular in-process dimensional checks, to the comprehensive final inspection of each completed component, the quality of the company’s output is closely monitored at every stage of production.

To complement the company’s high-tech machine tools and to uphold its jealously guarded reputation for the quality of the company’s output, Quaife make regular investments in the best available inspection equipment. As part of the company’s quest for continuous improvements, Glen Molineux, Company General Manager recently purchased a range of XT Xtreme bore gauges from the world’s largest manufacturer of internal measuring devices; UK based Bowers Metrology. Glen reports, “As part of our rigorous inspection routines we have to measure a lot of high-tolerance, internal bores, both in-process and at the final inspection stage. As the bore gauges we were looking to source would often be used in close proximity to machine tools, a relatively hostile measuring environment, we needed to ensure that our eventual choice of gauge would be ‘shop-floor-proof’.”

Glen found the answer to his search in Bowers’ advanced XT Xtreme range. The Bowers’ new electronics boast a very impressive IP65 rating, rendering them resistant to coolant, water and airborne particles. Amongst a long list of useful features incorporated in to these radical, tough instruments are: a clear digital display, metric/inch conversion, an RS 232 output and hardwearing extended travel, carbide measuring anvils.
Glen continued. “Having purchased XT Xtreme gauges that enable the measurement of bores from 25mm to 125mm diameter, our new Bowers bore gauges have proven very popular with our operators. The gauges are easy to use, extremely accurate and most importantly they are able to stand-up to harsh shop-floor use. The Bowers gauges are proving to be extremely flexible, in that we are able to fit them with extensions enabling deep-bore measurements to be taken, whilst Bowers will also manufacture inexpensive ‘one-off’ XT measuring heads to cater for many other internal measuring applications, such as threads, grooves, splines.”

For more information on the Bowers Bore Gauging range, click here.

Published on September 29, 2009 14:58