The automobile industry is highly competitive. Designers are fighting to get the attention of potential buyers towards new features and models. In this industry, there is no scope for error. Everything has to undergo stringent testing. Standards are very strict to follow. Even the paints and color used to have to undergo lots and lots of tests. Off lately, wall thickness measurement has become an important parameter. There are so many components assembled in a car that requires precise thickness to withstand the real working conditions, e.g. thickness of alloy wheels, air bag modules, ABS, etc.
Magna Mike 8600 is the hot favorite instrument used among testing labs. It works on simple magnetic principle. It has a probe and a target ball or target probe which creates a magnetic field to remain in sync with each other. Target ball is placed inside the object whose thickness is to be measured. On the outer surface, the probe creates the magnetic field for the target ball. The distance between the ball and probe is equivalent to the thickness of the surface. For more complicated areas, you can replace the target ball with the disc or with the wire. This instrument comes with a calibration kit so as to create error free reports.
Let’s take the example of air bag system, in this system an air bag is placed inside the inflation module. This inflation module has grooves which get torn to inflate the air bag. The manufacturer of air bag has to take all the precautions; impact sensor should detect the impact in very less response time, air bag should inflate, the grooves of the module is torn in accurate time. Here, the thickness of grooves of inflation module should be appropriate enough, not too thin or not too thick. If inflation is too thick it will not inflate the air bag on the impact. If it is too thin, it will inflate with very less impact when air bags are not even required.
