What kind of information can I enter into the Plus Tolerance and Minus Tolerance fields when I am setting up my Standards or my Standard Groups?

The Plus Tolerance and Minus Tolerance fields will accept only numerical values or percentages. You cannot enter any text into these two fields. Here are three examples of different tolerances:

Numerical Value: If you are calibrating a digital micrometer, the plus and minus tolerances might both be .001 or .0001. In the case of a Go/No Go gage, one tolerance might be .000 and the other tolerance might .001.

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Percentage: You will only want to use the % sign in the plus and minus tolerance when you want to apply a percent to each different value you are testing. If you are calibrating a tool that has a plus and minus tolerance of .001 when you are measuring 1 inch, a plus and minus tolerance of .002 when you are measuring 2 inches, and a plus and minus tolerance of .004 when you are measuring 4 inches, you would set the Plus Tolerance and the Minus Tolerance to .1%. GAGEtrak will calculate a minimum and maximum measurement correctly for every value. For every size, the plus and minus tolerances will be different.

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Percentage of Full Scale: When you know that the tolerance of the gage is a percentage of full scale, you would enter a value into the Plus Tolerance and Minus Tolerance fields, not the percentage. This tolerance would be the same for every measurement because the tolerance is not based on an individual measurement, but instead is based on the maximum measurement of the operating range. In an example of 0 – 200 psi with 2% of full scale, you would calculate 2% of 200 (4 psi) and enter 4 into the plus and minus tolerance. You will only want to use the % sign in the Plus Tolerance and Minus Tolerance fields when you want to apply the percentage to each different value you are testing. In the percentage of full scale, you will be entering a value and the Plus Tolerance and Minus Tolerance for every size measured will be the same.

After you have entered your Plus Tolerance and Minus Tolerance, you can enter your Nominal Values for each standard and GAGEtrak will automatically calculate the correct Minimum and Maximum Values for each Nominal.

In a case where the same way of calculating the Plus Tolerance and Minus Tolerance does not apply to every standard, you can change these tolerances appropriately before entering the Nominal value for each Standard ID. An example of this situation might be if you are calibrating a gage or standards that use different Units of Measure.