Metal finishing Q&As since 1989

-----

Calibrating tool to check copper thickness on steel material

Dear All,

I need to calibrate tool to check Copper thickness on Steel material in Indonesia.
What calibration agent that can calibrate our tool ?

Thanks & regards

Nur Husainy
Industrialist - Indonesia
November 22, 2010

---

Hi, Nur. There are many different types of instruments that can be used to measure the copper thickness, but you may be speaking of a simple magnetic tester. If you have some flat test strips you can copper plate them and check the thickness before and after with a micrometer and make sure your tester reads the same. Alternately you can do a microscopic cross sectioning to measure the thickness as a calibration guide. Finally, you should calculate what the thickness would be according to Faraday's Law as a constant reasonableness check.

You can also send the device to a testing lab who will calibrate it for you, but I am unfamiliar with their names or locations in Indonesia.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
November 24, 2010

---

It may require some digging to find standards of your exact plate on your exact alloy material.

I have used plastic shims of precise thicknesses with good results. I did cross check the results against metallographic examination of scrap similar parts. They worked fine for my "basic" requirements.

James Watts
- Navarre, Florida
November 26, 2010