Abstract
This study proposes a new screw measurement system that is capable of measuring the pitch or lead of a screw, which is one of the most important parameters representing the screw quality. There are various conventional methods for screw measurement including some mechanical and optical ones, but they can not be applied to measure the lead except the profiles or sizes. The newly suggested method is able to measure the pitch or lead directly. This is executed by scanning the thread with a digital probe while the target screw rotates. The devised measurement system is a integrated computer system which is composed of a stepping motor, a digital linear gauge and a chuck device for holding the measured screw. In order to operate the system effectively and conveniently, a computer program having graphical user interface facility is developed. Some experiments were done to prove the effectiveness of the system.