Here's The Pitch: Explaining Pitch Diameter To Those Who Don't Know

Posted on: 15 December 2017

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Thread plug gauges have a wide variety of purposes. However, most any thread plug gauge for sale is lined with screw threads. To get the right gauge to screw onto or in where you need it to go, you have to know something about pitch diameter. What is it? Why is it important? Why should you know something about it? All these questions and more are explained in the following.

What Pitch Diameter Is

Pitch diameter is the measure at which the screw threads in a thread gauge are tilted. If you look very closely at a stack of different screws, you will see that not all screws have threads that are exactly the same. Some are tighter and closer together, while others are wider and farther apart. The same holds true for thread gauges.

Their screw threads are higher or lower, narrower or wider, and/or tighter together or farther apart. Pitch explains the upward and downward climb of the screw threads, and diameter means how far apart the threads are as they wrap in a circle. Hence, the pitch diameter of a thread gauge describes everything you need to know about the screw threads inside or outside the gauge.

Why It Is Important to Know about Pitch Diameters

All thread gauges of various sizes have different pitch diameters. The pitch diameters determine whether or not you can use the thread gauges for whatever it is on which you are working. Clearly, you would not attempt to use a gauge with a high pitch diameter on something that has a low pitch diameter. It just would not work!

Why You Should Know Something about Pitch Diameters

Like all things in life, it helps to know a little bit about everything. In the case of thread gauges and pitch diameters, you might one day work in an industrial setting where the supervisor wants you to run into the supply room and grab a thread gauge with a basic pitch diameter. Would you even know what to look for, when everything in the supply closet looks like everything else? By learning a few things about thread gauges and pitch diameters, you could walk into that supply closet and at least be able to pick out the thread gauges, and then maybe pick out the correct pitch diameter (if everything in there is not labeled). If nothing else, you would at least understand parts of a conversation at a work party in an industrial setting.

For more information, contact a company that has a thread plug gage for sale near you.