Thermo-Temp, Inc. Customer Spotlight on Calibration: MW Components – Houston: Fasteners

The Thermo-Temp, Inc. (TTI) calibration team shares an inside look at the MW Components Quality Inspection Lab.  MW Components – Houston: Fasteners was formerly known as USA Fastener Group, Inc.

Calibrated instruments and accurate measurements are important to Richard Galvan, Lead Quality Inspector at MW Components – Houston:  Fasteners.  The location manufactures a wide range of fastener products in different materials including steel, copper, and nickel alloys as well as nylon and Teflon.  They manufacture products that are used to assemble critical parts in the oil and gas, railroad, and valves industries and serve major corporations in those fields. As the Lead Quality Inspector, Richard ensures these products meet the quality standards required by their customers.

The MW Components – Houston: Fasteners location specializes in milling, turning, drilling, threading, and roll threading.  Richard conducts first article and final inspections, American Petroleum Institute (API) inspections, hardness testing, dimensional inspections, and positive material identification (PMI) testing for their manufactured products.

“I need to make accurate measurements to check the quality of our products so they will operate properly when used in the field,” says Richard, “and I need properly calibrated instruments to make those measurements.  Thermo-Temp keeps our instruments calibrated so we can stay focused on meeting the quality and delivery standards of our customers.”

MW Components Logo

In Picture 2, Richard is preparing to inspect a collar stud that the company has manufactured.  A caliper is shown in the front of the picture.  There are two OD (outside diameter) micrometers on the workbench, one at the top-middle and one to the right in the picture, and there are “go” and “no go” thread ring gages at the bottom right in the picture. In Picture 3, Richard uses an OD micrometer to check the diameter of the shaft of the collar stud.

In Picture 4, Richard is using a height gauge to measure the thickness and height of a manufactured nut. Both the height gauge and the nut are resting on a surface plate, which provides an extremely flat surface for accuracy.

“It is important to calibrate dimensional measurement instruments regularly when inspecting critical dimensions and close tolerances. Even surface plates need to be checked and calibrated for flatness,” says Richard.

In Picture 5, Richard uses an optical comparator to observe the profile characteristics and check the dimensions of a bolt.  A silhouette image of the bolt can be seen on the screen.  The shadow is created by shining a light source onto a mounted bolt, as can be seen at the bottom of Picture 6.

“TTI keeps our equipment calibrated and provides thorough certificates,” says Richard.  “They provide electronic certificates for quick retrieval or printing.  They remind us of calibration due dates and are very responsive to our service requests.  They also offer personalized pickup and delivery of our instruments,” he says.

When asked why he relies on Thermo-Temp, Richard says, “Quality calibrations, reliability, timeliness, on-call service… and when the field service team performs calibrations in my lab, I can be confident my equipment will be calibrated on the same day.”

Richard says he found out about Thermo-Temp, Inc. when they serviced industrial furnaces where he was working in 1994 and he has been a customer ever since.  “I like the way that Thermo-Temp does business,” he says.

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