VIDEO: TOOLING UP: Bi-directional Gauges Are Transforming Precision Measurement

HANY ABDEL-MOTALEB: When we're able to control these gauges digitally through a computer, what we can do is we can set that zero from that computer, right. And so that becomes much more important when we're seeing multiple gauges on a fixture on a jig or something like that, measuring big parts, something like that. And so, to be able to have that type of efficiency where we can just press a single button on our computer to send that zero out to multiple gauges becomes really important.

Narrator: This video is brought to you by Mitutoyo. Precision is our profession. If you're looking for real world insights, tips from leading industry experts, the latest trends in products and technology, you've come to the right place. From MSC Industrial Supply, this is Tooling Up.

TONI NEARY:  Hello and welcome to Tooling Up. I'm your host, Toni Neary, and I'm so glad that you've joined us here today. Before we get to today's guest, let's go ahead and take care of a little bit of business. If you're new around here, go ahead and click those like and subscribe buttons so you don't miss a single episode. All right,everybody clicked? Great. Today I'm excited to be talking about the next generation of smart measurement technology. And we have Hany Abdel-Motaleb, sales engineer for data management solutions at Mitutoyo. Hany, thank you so much for joining us. And welcome to Tooling Up.

HANY ABDEL-MOTALEB: Hi, Toni. Thank you very much.

TONI NEARY:  So one of the things that I always love is hearing how people found their way into our amazing industry. Can you share a little bit about your journey and your journey to Mitutoyo?

HANY ABDEL-MOTALEB: Yeah, I've been with Mitutoyo for about 10 years now, and I first learned about it when I was going to school at Northern Illinois University, and which is just about 30 minutes from Mitutoyo’s U.S. headquarters. And, I majored in industrial management and technology. I was also taking machining courses, SPC classes, CAD classes. And one of those classes was a metrology class. And my professor was one of the executive vice presidents or one of the presidents at Mitutoyo. And, he taught this class once a week and he introduced me to metrology and made it, you know, just a really fun, interesting class. And, you know, I'd gotten hooked ever since.

TONI NEARY:  I love it when industry professionals can kind of teach and inspire the next generation. I think that's amazing and very cool with developing technology. So when I think of metrology, I think of Mitutoyo, and for decades you've been synonymous with quality control, precision measurement, and you're often in the quality end of the production process. So you're generally in that quality lab.

But, let's talk a little bit about what you're seeing with the movement of precision measurement happening, like, earlier in the process and kind of throughout the process. How does that work?

HANY ABDEL-MOTALEB: Yeah. So typically, you know, a lot of the, you know, especially high-end Mitutoyo equipment is done in the quality labs, right? So, for a final inspection, you know, those types of things are happening. Our equipment is always happening in the, in the quality labs. And so that's where, you know, a lot of the Mitutoyo staff spend their time, you know, figuring out solutions there.

And so what we're seeing now is really growing more towards in-process inspection and certainly we've had, you know, tons of our tools - mics, calipers, indicators, height gauges, those things out on the shop floor. But we're interfacing with them a lot more. And with my job as a data management specialist is that we're seeing people collecting more and more data out on the shop floor, and then we're seeing actually our higher end equipment finding its way out onto the shop floor as well like shop floor CMMs for example. And so the industry is just collecting a lot more data, doing a lot more measurements with in-process inspection. And there's a whole bunch of different benefits for doing that.

TONI NEARY:  All right Hany, bidirectional communication technology is not something that is probably a household term right now. Can you break this down a little bit more for our viewers? What is bidirectional communication technology?

HANY ABDEL-MOTALEB: So, bidirectional communication or two-way communication, is the communication from the gauge to the computer and from the computer back to the gauge. And so what we've typically had to offer with our, you know, our, our simple measuring tools like mics, calipers, and indicators, is the ability to just send data one way from the tool to the computer and, and just sending, a single measurement value, right? And so with bidirectional communication, what we're able to do is we're able to request that data, but then we're able to request so many more things as well. And so this bidirectional communication just makes you know, the lives of the operators just so much easier, so much simpler and controlling all sorts of different gauges, is just really beneficial.

TONI NEARY:  What are some of the, you know, enhancements? What are some of the benefits of starting to integrate some of these bidirectional communication technology tools earlier in the process?

HANY ABDEL-MOTALEB: Traceability from the measurement to the gauges is becoming much, much more important. And so we're not having to rely on the operators or the inspectors to record which tools that they're using where they could maybe make mistakes, or maybe, you know, again, stickers fall off that have those serial numbers on them. And so we don't really know which gauges we're using to do these measurements.

With this bidirectional communication now we can use our software and our hardware to talk to each other to grab this information. And so now we can start to pull the serial number from within the gauge for every single measurement that we take. And this becomes hugely, hugely important when we're talking about highly regulatory industries, like an aerospace, like a medical. And then you're going to see this, you know, everywhere else, right?

Automotive is going to be big, oil and gas. So pretty much, you know, all the major industries are going to require this type of traceability.

TONI NEARY:  And for me, that's industry 5.0 right? 4.0 is the automation, 5.0 is data and data back and forth and really having that bidirectional. So, you've mentioned controlling multiple gauges. How does this really like improve efficiency especially those with complex setups?

HANY ABDEL-MOTALEB: So, the first thing an operator or an inspector does is checks the calibration sticker. The second thing that they do is they check the zero of the gauge, right. If they're zero is off on that gauge, then all the measurements are worthless at that point right? And so when we're able to control these gauges digitally through a computer, what we can do is we can set that zero from that computer, right? And so that becomes much more important when we're seeing multiple gauges on a fixture, on a jig or something like that, measuring big parts, something like that. And so to be able to have that type of efficiency where we can just press a single button on our computer to send that zero out to multiple gauges, becomes really important.

And it's not just the zero. We can just hit a button to turn on all the gauges to even set a preset. Maybe we're not going to zero, but we're going to do a preset on these gauges. And so being able to control multiple gauges is really just going to make, you know, life a lot easier for those people who are doing those inspections. It error-proofs things makes sure that they're not missing zeros on certain gauges.

And then like I said earlier, we're grabbing that traceability, that serial number from each gauge, making sure that they're calibrated. And we know which tools are are doing which measurements. It becomes, you know, really valuable.

TONI NEARY:  I think that's amazing. And it sounds incredibly advanced, I'd imagine is I mean, this has got to be fairly complicated to get set up and running, right?

HANY ABDEL-MOTALEB: So, typically what we see with this type of thing now while, you know, maybe turning on gauges or sending commands to certain gauges, may not be, you know, that new of a thing, but typically what that's done is with, you know, like PLCs and controllers and using different types of sensors and these types of things. And so what Mitutoyo has done is really revolutionized the indicator, which is a like a bread and butter gauge, at every single machine shop for pretty much every single manufacturer in the United States.

And so, when I mentioned different fixtures here is that style of indicator, that that sort of round body and the spindle on there, there's fixtures that are designed specifically for that. And so now we'll, we're able to do is just do sort of a, a mix and match or a plug and play where we can swap out these old style indicators, put in these new ones, and it becomes really easy to do.

And then from the communication side, nothing really fancy is needed. So we have software called MeasurLink that can communicate to these gauges. It has all these commands and it's just a simple, you know, windows software where we can do these different, you know, commands and button clicks and control our gauges how we want them.

TONI NEARY:  Well, it sounds like Mitutoyo has done it again. This has been incredibly insightful, moving measurement from the back end to an integrated, controllable part of the process is truly game changing for efficiency and quality. Hany, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing all of this with us.

HANY ABDEL-MOTALEB: Great. Thank you so much.

TONI NEARY:  It was great nerding out with Hany today, and if you enjoyed our conversation as much as I did and you want to see more discussions just like this, please go ahead and subscribe to our channel to find out more about Mitutoyo’s bidirectional communication technology and MeasurLink software, visit www.mscdirect.com/mitutoyo. Thanks and we'll see you next time on Tooling Up.

Narrator: Want more insights and ideas to improve the efficiency and productivity of your operations? Check out the Tooling Up Video playlist to hear tips that can take your company to the next level, and subscribe to our channel so you won't miss out.