Mahr Federal has expanded the Application Center at its Providence, RI, headquarters, more than doubling in size the available space. The new center includes a broader range of dimensional gaging and metrology systems equipment to expand application development activity and allow increased customer participation.

"Mahr is 'the Application Specialist,' said Pat Nugent, vice president for Metrology Systems at Mahr Federal, "and this expansion gives us the capacity to do more in a more customer interactive way."

Nugent explained that the Center's expanded footprint allows the inclusion of a much broader range of equipment than before. "Where we had a form machine and a surface machine and a contour machine before, we now have three form machines and four surface and contour machines," he said. "For example, we had an LD 120 combined roughness and contour system before, but now we also have room for the new, high speed, longer travel LD 260 instrument, and will soon be getting a new LD 260 3D Aspheric, as well, for measurement and analysis of precision optics."

Also included in the new Application Center will be more precision length products for the calibration of a variety of gage types. The center has an Optimar 100 indicator calibrator as well as the industry benchmark, setting gage block comparator system.

"We've also set up an area with a large granite surface plate," said Nugent, "which allows us to work with a whole range of 2D and 3D height gages as well as other fixture and layout equipment. A full complement of the Dimensionair® systems for air gage measurement of diameters and tapers is on hand for application development. Our complete range of basic tools such as indicators, calipers, micrometers, and snap gages, etc., are also available in the Center."

The new Providence Application Center joins ranks with two other Mahr Federal Application Centers, one in Los Angeles, and an even larger Center in Cincinnati. The benefits of these centers are two-fold, according to Nugent. First, they act as product showrooms. But more importantly, they allow Mahr application engineers to work on customer projects to develop the most efficient, cost-effective gaging solutions for their quality control needs.

"Once we have a solution developed, we can show the customer what we have in mind via a net meeting, or they can come to one of our Centers and work with the gaging systems themselves."