Parallelism

Measuring and aligning for parallelism has many practical applications across industry. The Microgage can establish parallel reference lines accurate to within 0.001 inch over considerable distances by simply moving the 90-Line to different positions along the laser path and using the receiver to make comparison measurements. This is ideal for checking machinery, web and roll systems and a variety of production equipment across many industries.

Typical applications include

Measuring and aligning rollers and web handling systems
Aligning precision tracks and guide rails
Installing gantry slides and router assemblies
Checking and aligning pallet loaders
Align unwind and take up roll sections
Measuring parallel edges
Aligning sprocket and drive systems
Checking columns on injection molding machines
And many other applications

How Do You Do It?

For parallelism measurements, the 90-Line is moved sequentially along the laser path to create multiple reference lines, or planes, that are each square to the original laser reference line and parallel to each other. Along each of these individual square reference lines, the Microgage receiver takes a series of readings to see how that surface, shaft, track, or object is positioned relative to the square laser reference beam. The 90-Line is then moved to a new position, creating another square laser line, parallel to the last line, which measures the position of the next track, shaft, or surface.

Comparing your readings for each surface tells you precisely if the surfaces are out of parallel, by how much, and in which direction. By turning the nosepiece of the 90-Line or the 90-Line Square Plane, the laser can be directed upwards or downwards so that parallelism can be checked for items that do not lie in the same plane.