Question about Sensors

There are plenty of sensors that will measure or monitor a small change of a part....

How small a change is needed to be measured?

How big is the little part and what is it made of?

How far away is the part from the sensor, can it make contact??

John.

John: The change that I need to measure is of less than 1mm. In the picture you can see the change that I need to detect. If the part moves in the same way of the picture I need to know it using the sensor.The little part is made of metal. The part can make contact with the sensor.

Thank you!

Marisol

Is this two metal parts moving with relation to one another? or just a metal part going through a elastic deformation?

If you are experiencing elastic deformation strain guages might work for you, they are typicaly used to measure strain in critical stress members.

lets see 1mm comes to just a little under 40 thousands for me, this is child's play for a dial indicator, if you need to log the data or get it into a controll system, there are digital dial indicators available as well. Inexpensive dial indicators can easily measure to 1/2 thousand of an inch ~ 0.0127mm the hard part then is getting two good serfaces, one to mount to, and one to measure off of. If your mounting surfase is not stable measureing to the hundreth of a mm is silly.

Hope that helps some

The two parts moving with relation to one other, they are metal parts both.

With respect of dial indicators that can easily measure to 0.0127mm changes in the moving of two good surfaces (thats exactily what I need), can you tell me an example of the sensor please?

Thanks

Marisol

well, I googled "dial indicator" and first site shows some photos and how tos:

http://www.mini-lathe.com/Measurement/Dial_indicators/Dial_indicators.htm

the third hit was an online tool store's starret product page:

http://www.mytoolstore.com/starrett/indindx.html

fourth hit was wikipeidia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dial_indicator

fifth his was amozon:

http://www.amazon.com/Grizzly-H3022-Magnetic-Indicator-Caliper/dp/B0000DD4GB

So after reading some on those sites and several of thier links I bet you will know what they are, how to use them, and where to buy them, and what price range you should expect to pay. I wouldn't get one for less than $100, plus the fixtureing; don't get cheep toolroom equipment, you'll be dissapointed.

You should also know about McMaster Carr, mail (or internet) order industrial supply that will sell to individuals, not just bussinesses. I'm sure they sell a variety of dial indicators.