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Tolerance Calculator: A Freeware Metrology Tool Chris Grachanen ‘Compaq Computer Corporation Tolerance Calculator is @ Windows™ compatible software program that calculates the tolerances for test valites om equipment specifications, test uncertainty ratios (TURs), reverse TURs, accumulated uncertainties, cansumer’sand producer's risk — and it’s FREEWARE! The author developed the program originally for department use at Compag Computer Corporation, but has received permission from the company t0 distribute it as freeware. Tolerance Calculator is a Freeware, Windows™ come patible software program that performs calculations on ‘equipment specifications to produce two-sided tolerances the acceptable plus ane minus variance around a nomi ral test value. Using the program reduces computation eitors and the confusion associated with equipment specmanship. Equipment specifications comprised of dif- ferent tolerance components such as percent of reading, ppm of range, least significant digits (LSD), and noise lor are easily manipulated to provide bottoms line exite- ria for evaluating equipment performance. Yolerancecom: ponents normally associated with mechanical physical ailipanent such as percent hysteresis ancl percent span are also included in the Tolerance Caleulator’s specifica- tion vorabulary Tolerance Calculator also performs metrulogy related computations such as test uncertainty ratios (TURS). re- verse TURS, accumulated uncertainties, consumer's and producer's risk, as well as providing help files of techni call references, Tolerance Caleubator is 3 valuable tool in the following applications: ‘Formulating equipment specifications “Creating calibration data sheets and providing means for recording, evaluating and archiving calibration re- sults Performing "what if" calibration scenarios ‘Determining equipment calibration suitability based an accuracy requirements ‘Providing an independent means for validating toler- ance computations af automated calibration systems ‘Performing unit conversions and percentage-bused eal culations Jay © Aucusr 1996 The ides for Tolerance Calculator sprang from an ad vertisement | read in a quality magazine. The ad was for a dedicated, statistical process control (SPC) type handheld calculator. At the time L was heavtly awolved in creating, pronfing and authorizing equipment calibra tion data sheets. It was apparent frum those endeavors that the leading cause for errors associated with calibra thon data sheets was interpreting manufacturer's spectfi cationsand then using those specifications toereate two- sided tolerances, Computations involving resolution type tolerance components such ascount,dligits, and floor weee tthe most troublesome. This was especially true when reso- lution tolerance components: were combined with mea- sured and/or range tolerance components in a single specification, ‘The methodology for deriving two-sided tolerances typically involved keying in nominal values and then si quencing a handheld eslculator’s applicable math func? tions until all lolerance components were satisfied. Come uled two-sided tolerances were then manually entered intaa data sheet software program. This process is cum~ borsome, timeconsuming, and error prone Since a dedi- cated. handheld tolerance calculator was not commer: cially available, a software tool was considered a viable Alternative; thus the Tolerance Calculator became an "as- time-permitted /lunch-time” project. It was deciced at the ansot that a total uncertainty analy= sis ofa measurement process per the requirements of the then, recently released, ISO/TAG/WG 3 June 1992 Guide ‘To The Expression Of Uncertatuty lit Measurements was be- yond the seupe of the Tolerance Calculator. Instead, Tol- ferance Calculator would focus.an equipment specifica- tions to facilitate the creation of calibration data sheets, ‘was lurther decided that it would be Windows based, provide results formats for use with other software pi ‘prams, use manufacturer tolerance nomenclature, provide 30 Torrance CaLcucaros: A Freewase Merkotocy Toot a Coane | samcbaatime | tate ac Prriwader no Das Tessar apa Fumes] MoniVile Regan Pe (ee at PToterance — absinat aon Va) Tol Pine Monee Tanrer at Fe RISK Rowman nat FPRISK — Wetewema run ‘srreae ine UR Fem beet Rerru Gta} Fem Pher— peresltussen ta! PToLta Nom (sews terest TC be Hom Ganketan tsi Range FS agen Rees Cowste essen threat ry Find Value eames FPea Uncert Aenoy asin aieTU End Type Oe otece ae ros (etn Peering Tel Fab Value Coben el are type ea omens Fa Yalen Uh Towra Fain type Wh Toee ipe ‘Tie seine tae re nt eer Png ond Sings Lian rennin serntttn vr) Fedacnsnn type may be chan gai Sete! ALLCALCULATIONS ARC SPAN SIIRPINCED 10 MOMIMAL Pot OSIMATO. Figure 1, Tolerance Calculator data type selaclion seraen. data entry validation priar to compur tations anet be user friendly, Since its original release for inter- ral use at Compag Computers, Tol- erance Calculator has been through four revisions and as been distrib tuted for external use asa Freeware public domain program, Using Tolerance Calculator ‘Tolerance Calculator’ compressed {iles (revision 2.0)fit on one 35°, high density disk and uses £38 Kbytes, TL installed by running SETUPEXE from Windowrs(3.1 ar higher revision, ‘The setup program uncompresses ey a Few Lees ea « Figure 2. Tolerance Gatculator main screen, 3 (Comms GracHANEN, files and copies them to the Toleal3 (default) directory automatically ere ated by the setup program and tothe Windows/System directory. An uncompressed Readme.tt file is in- cluded on the setup disk to assist with installation, Tis recommenced after installing, Tolerance Calculator that three stubdie rectoricsbe manually created fzom its uain directory: TOL (for archiving, calculated tolerance results), OVR (tor archiving data sheet overlays) ane MEA (for archiving completed data sheets} When opened, Tolerance Calcula- tor displays an identification screen and. then the Data Type screen (fig- ture 1), This menu sereen allows users. torseleet the types of data that will be transferred to Windows Notepad or Windows Write® and the save func tien, ‘The main sereen (figure 2) is di- vided into four sections: data entey, statistics, display controls and cam puted results. UUT information is entered in the data entry section. QUT nomnals, ranges, resolutions: and tolerance values may be keyed in using. a maximum of 11 characters (0.0001 ty 9999,999998) or selected from scroll down listings activated by clicking on arrow boxes adjacent to. data entry fields. UUT unit designa: tors from tera to pico (+12 to +12 ¢x: ponent} for associated nominal, range and resolution values are available fromseroll down listings. UUT nami- ral units may alse be selected froma serall down listing or entered directly (maximum of § characters), The "@” data entry field is a general textfield with a masimum length of 8 charac: ters, ‘An explanation of the mathernati cal madels used for each tolerance type may be found in Tolerance Caleulator’s on-line Operator's Manual. After completing all appli- cable data entry thelds, clicking the ‘Caleulate command button oF pres ing P9 will compute UUT tolerance and statistical values. Tolerance computed results are Jour + Auousr 198 ToLeRANce Cavcurarie A FanwaRe Merhouocy Too. ‘Chins Gracitanen, Toc Hf oat a (a) te) We) veel row’ rf “tao ew s_ cw = = me o_o Figure 3. Linear line plot given relative to the nominal’s unit designator e.g. 0.01% of 10 M would yield 0.001 M result. Computed re- sultsare displayed in hetwo spread> sheets atthe bottom ofthe screen. The format of computed results ean be customized using the Farmay cou mane button and Clip, Copy, Delete, Teter tone Se en SS GAO tml sya eevee] “ee en ele Eat and Insert commands, ‘The ULT statistical area is com- prised of data fields for tolerance ‘combination, confidence tevel, TUR and percent guardband, The toler. ance combination data field deter- ‘mines how tolerance compavents ate combined, either algebraically (worst case) OF rool stam square (RSS). The confidence [evel dats field represents the percentage ofthe area of the nar mal curve that lies fbave the cont dence interval. Confidence levels ranging fren 68.27% (1 6) to 94.73% 1G 6) are used in determining con- sumer’sand producer's risk Consumer's and producer's visks for specificconfidence level and TUR combinations are derived from for- tnulas presented ina paper titled Hoes To Maintain Your Competence lira World af Declining Test Uncertainty Ratios tiven by David Deawer of Fluke Co poration at the National Conference of Standards Laboratories (NCSL) 1998 Workshop and Sympesien By changing confidence levels ana TURS. different calibration scenarios ‘can beevalafed, such aswhena stan: dard does not meet a 43 TUR but is at a better than 2 ¢ canfidensé level The TUR data field can also be used Toe earnputing required uncertainties used in determining consumer's and producer's risk. TUR selections range fom a ratio of EL tg LOH The per cent guardbond data field i poscent. age, Fanging from 1% 109%, used in computing all euardbsacl data. De- Jults for LUT statisiea| entries are algebraic, 2 sigma, 41 and 70% (Once tolerance computations have been perlormed, results can be plot: ted, printed, saved to a File, used in deveemining accumulated uncertain ties and reverse TURs oF transfered to thedata sheet moduleat the Toler- ance Caleulator, Computations may be checked using the Windows Cal- culator command button Plotting computed results requires at least two resubt erations. Any {grouping oFtwo or more sequentially Computed results may be plotted Line plots of toberance valurtsand tol. erances as percentages of namninals an be displayed in linear and Joga Tthmic fechinn (Cgures Land 4) In addition, linear plots may be viewed in arai, 2D bar, 3D bar and scatter formats. Linear line and seat ter plotscandisplay mean, best ie and standard deviation statistical lines Figure 6, Tolerance components pie plat, Linear line plots can also display plot values by right mouse clicking in sequence: the XY origin, end of the Y axis (vertical). enel of X axis ¢horizontall; and then leit mouse licking any poltit on the plot. Twe ar avere toler ance components can be plotted as percentages using & pie type format (igure). All plots may bectipped to Win- dows Clipboard for use in cut and pasteactivities, as well as printed. Plotting statistics are displayed for minimum, ‘maximum and mean plot values. A snapshot listing of all plot values is displayed via the Snapshot command but- ton Computed results can be saved using the default for: mat or custom fossratted for use with other software pro- gramseg.spreadshect, databases Filesare saved a8 ASCII text, The actual data transferred la. file dependent on thedatatypessclected from the data typescreen. The “Tol Save" format used by the Tolerance Calculator saves car puted results, row by row, using a comma data sepazator. ‘Custom formats can save computed results in 3 ro by row or column by calumn format using one of the follow= ling data separators: comma, space, carriage return, line feed, carriage return and line feed, colon, semicolon.or no data separator. ‘vat lech for soving compe results fr ater retrieval by the Tolerance Calculator isto save individ ual ‘equipment parameters to separate files cy. DC voltage, AC voltage, DC current, The Results Append function can be used to combine these separate files into asingle file The Toleraice Calculator uses Windows! two built-in sword processors, Notepad and Write Writepad in Win- dows 95), for printing computed resutts, From the word processor's environments. computed resilts may he fore matted for a specific application and then saved to a file (OF particular note is Wite's ability to accept graphic ob fects whici allows ctipped plots to be pasted init Computed uncertainties may be evaluated using the ‘Tolerance Calelator'saccumulative uncertainty and re 3 ‘ToLeRANce CALCULATOR: A FREEWARE METROLOGY Tool, Clans Gea HANES verse TUR functions. The accurnulative uncertainty fanc- {onallows individual uncertainties components compris: Inga measurement system or process tobe combined into Asingle uncertainty. Any grouping of twroor more sequen. tially carmputed uncertainties may be evaluated with t function. Individual uncertainty components may be combined cither algebraically {worst cise) or root stmt square (RSS). The total accumulative uncertainty i come puted and displayed as a percentage and pent. The Reverse TUR function cused for comparing eaip- ment uncertainties. This function is particularly usefl for verifying stated TURS on certificates of calibration and for determining equipment suitably for uae as calibra- Mion standards. Any computed uncertainty may be eval ated laany other computed uncertainty regardless of it- eration sequence, Accumulative uncertainty and reverse ‘TUR results can be transferred to Write or Notepad. The datashee! module uses computed results to doc smentactual calibrations. Cifeking the Datashizetcoramand ‘button transfers computed resuits to the datasheet ‘module's spreadsheets. The top spreadsheet displays ns ‘merical information. while the bottorn contains descrip ‘ive information bath spreadsheets are synchronized with each other for viewing purposes). The clip function ean, bbe used to transfer portions of a spreadsheet to the Win- dows Clipboard, The add edit functionallows editing of computed results as well as creating and adding toler- ance types. The datasheet module's header data entry fields are based on seclion 182 requirements of IS0/TEC Guide 25 Rev. 3, 19% Cenenal Requirements for tie Competence of CCalbyadion owt Testing Laborstoree and ANSI/INCSL 2540 11984, Calibration Laboratories and Measuring and Test Equiprient- General Regiments, Once applicable header information has been completed and any additional tol- frances and/or comments added, they can be saved as anoverlay file for future ase. Overlay files can be tans ferred to Write or Notepad and printed Calibration results may also be entered directly into.a overlay file and then saved a8 4 measurement file. pro viding documentation ofa UUT' calibration, Entered eal bration results for operator and single side band evalua {ins are computed on a pass/fail criteria, while entered

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