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Pride Gage pairs local metrology expertise with MicroRidge’s wireless data collection to close the gap between measured parts and documented, audit-ready records.
In the automotive supply chain running through Toledo, Ohio and into southeast Michigan, the quality department doesn’t get much margin for error. Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers serving Stellantis, GM, and Ford are operating under IATF 16949 requirements that demand documented, traceable measurement data: not handwritten check sheets transcribed at end of shift, but real-time data with a clear chain of custody from the gage to the record.
The gap between a measured part and a documented result is where quality failures hide. Closing that gap is where Pride Gage and MicroRidge intersect.
Pride Gage Associates, LLC is a Toledo, Ohio-based metrology distributor and solutions provider serving manufacturers across Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and beyond. Their Sales Engineers bring hands-on experience across the full quality function, including metrology lab management, quality engineering, quality management, and gage engineering. They assess the measurement environment on the customer’s floor and build a solution around it.
Pride Gage isn’t a catalog house. Their positioning is explicit: the pricing of a national distributor with the technical service of a local partner. For quality teams working a nonconformance, a third-party audit finding, or a production line that needs a measurement system built around it, that distinction makes an operational difference.
Their product line includes Mahr, Mitutoyo, Marposs, Vision Engineering, Fowler, Glastonbury Southern Gage, Western Gage, Aberlink CMMs, and Prolink SPC software. They also design and build custom gaging solutions for measurement challenges that standard equipment can’t address. Their calibration network covers ISO/IEC 17025-approved laboratories matched to customer-specific requirements, giving customers a one-source relationship that simplifies supplier qualification and audit documentation.
Bill Gstalder and Bob Long serve as Pride Gage’s Sales Engineers. Bill covers Michigan; Bob covers Ohio and Pennsylvania. Both spend the majority of their time at customer sites rather than in the office, by design, walking the shop floor to evaluate a measurement system before recommending a solution.
The manufacturers Pride Gage serves most frequently run mixed-brand gage inventories accumulated over years of production: Mitutoyo calipers at one station, Mahr micrometers at another, thread gages from Glastonbury Southern, a height gage from Fowler. This isn’t unusual; it’s the standard reality of a shop floor that has grown and evolved over time.
The common data collection approach in these environments is manual. The operator measures the part, writes the result on a paper check sheet, and the data gets keyed into a spreadsheet or SPC system later, if it gets keyed in at all. Under IATF 16949, that’s a measurement system carrying transcription error risk at every step, with no documented timestamp and no real-time visibility into whether the process is staying within control limits.
When a third-party auditor asks how measurement data is captured, verified, and fed into the quality system, “the operator writes it down” is an answer that generates findings.
MicroRidge’s MobileCollect wireless gage data collection system was built for exactly this environment: mixed-brand, multi-station, production-floor inspection where the measurement data needs to move from the gage to the quality system without a person in the middle.
The Mini Mobile Module EVO (M3E) transmitter attaches directly to the gage’s data output: Mitutoyo Digimatic, Mahr, Fowler/Sylvac, Starrett, and dozens of other brands. The operator presses a button, or uses a foot switch, and the reading transmits wirelessly over MicroRidge’s RM2.4 protocol to a base receiver connected to the PC running the SPC application. The data record includes a timestamp. There is no transcription step.
For Pride Gage customers in IATF 16949 environments, the compliance implications are direct. Measurement traceability, required under IATF 16949 section 7.1.5, becomes a system property rather than a documentation exercise. Control chart data is real-time rather than retrospective. Out-of-control signals trigger on the current shift, not when someone audits the check sheets at the end of the week.
MobileCollect operates on RM2.4, MicroRidge’s proprietary wireless protocol built on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. It uses 32-bit encryption, a hub-and-spoke architecture, and a sleep-wake duty cycle that delivers over 800,000 readings per CR2032 on the M3E, a practical fit for high-volume production environments where swapping transmitter batteries mid-shift isn’t acceptable.
Critically for Pride Gage’s mixed-brand customer environments: MobileCollect connects to gages from over 50 manufacturers with 3,500+ supported gage models. There’s no requirement to standardize on a single brand to get wireless data collection working. If the shop floor runs Mahr and Mitutoyo side-by-side, both work.
Not sure if your gages are supported? MicroRidge’s MobileCollect Selection Tool lets you search by gage brand and model to confirm compatibility and identify the right transmitter and cable configuration before you buy.
MicroRidge handles the physical layer: wireless data collection from the gage to the receiver. What happens next depends on the customer’s software stack. Pride Gage’s familiarity with Prolink and other SPC platforms means they can scope the full data flow: gage to transmitter, transmitter to receiver, receiver to software, software to quality record.
For customers implementing SPC for the first time as part of an IATF 16949 corrective action or surveillance audit response, having a local partner who understands both the hardware and software sides of the loop is operationally significant. Pride Gage can assess the gage inventory, recommend the right MobileCollect configuration, and help ensure the data lands where it needs to for the audit record.
Pride Gage serves Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and ships nationwide for custom solutions and specialty product requirements. For manufacturers in the Toledo and southeast Michigan corridor, one of the densest concentrations of automotive Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers in the country, working with a local partner who comes to the floor, understands the measurement environment, and can support gage service and calibration alongside data collection deployment is a meaningfully different experience than purchasing direct.
“Pride Gage Associates is always looking for the best solution for our customers, and in this business there’s usually more than one way to get the job done. We represent a lot of great companies that build similar products, and with MicroRidge’s system, we can connect almost any gage with an output connection, whatever brand it happens to be.” — Bill Gstalder, Sales Engineer, Pride Gage
Customer outcome: A manufacturing customer needed several gage workstations set up across their floor. Each station had gages from four different manufacturers, each with a different output connection. Rather than standardize hardware or run separate collection methods per brand, Pride Gage used MicroRidge’s system to connect all four gage types into a single data collection setup.
Pride Gage Associates, LLC
6725 W. Central Ave, Suite M
Toledo, OH 43617
866-238-3445
sales@pridegage.com
pridegage.com
Bill Gstalder: Michigan territory
Bob Long: Ohio and Pennsylvania territory
MicroRidge designs and manufactures gage data collection solutions for manufacturing quality teams who need real-time, accurate measurement data without manual entry. Learn more about MobileCollect Wireless or contact MicroRidge directly.