Equipment Used to Measure Force - 5 Must-Have Characteristics of Great Force Equipment
Equipment used to measure force is going to be made to minimize off-center loading, bending, and torsion. To do this force, machines need to be:
- Plumb
- Level
- Square
- Rigid
- Free of Torsion
All of the machines shown are designed with these 5 things in mind. Equipment used to measure force must replicate how most instruments are used in the field.
- Plumb - Exactly vertical or true
Morehouse 1,000 lbf automated deadweight machine that is plumb. In this machine, the weights hang in a vertical direction and if they are out of plumb, they will introduce misalignment through the vertical line of force.
- Level - A device for establishing a horizontal line or plane by means of a bubble in a liquid that shows the adjustment to the horizontal by movement to the center of a slightly bowed glass tube
Morehouse 100,000 lbf UCM. The upper and lower platen are ground flat and the adjustable feet allow the end-user to obtain a level condition. If the level is not achieved, errors from misalignment will happen.
- Square - for Force Machines this is about having four right angles.
Morehouse 10,000 lbf Benchtop Machine. The adjustable beam and bottom base form the 4 right angles. This reduces the chance of misalignment. The bottom screw is aligned to the top beam to keep the line of force as plumb as possible.
- Rigid – not flexible. If the loading surface starts to bend, all sorts of alignment errors can happen which will impact the results
Morehouse USC-60K With Reference Load and Morehouse 4215 Indicator – the top and bottom plates are reinforced to keep the machine from bending
- Torsion – the action of twisting or the state of being twisted. Free of torsion means free of being twisted when forces are applied
Morehouse PCM-2K With Reference Load Cell. This machine has special bearings to keep things from twisting. Before putting in the bearings, the measurement errors were higher than 0.1 %, when we added the bearings, the errors became less than 0.02 %, which is better than most transfer standard-type machines.
Equipment Used to Measure Force Must Replicate Field Use:
To Replicate Field Use for ASTM E4 & ISO 7500 Calibrations in These Types of Machines
- The Calibration Laboratory Should Not Perform Compression and Tension Calibration in the Same Setup (Common Practice as it is much quicker)
- They Should use the Customer’s Top Blocks and make Separate Compression Setups
- In Compression, they Should Require a Baseplate to Load Against
- For Tension Calibration, if the End-User is Calibrating per ISO 7500, They Should Use Adapters Recommended Per the ISO Annex, which would be different than what is shown here
What makes great equipment used to measure force - Conclusion
I take great pride in our knowledgeable team at Morehouse, who continue to work with everyone, clarify complex topics, and provide tools such as free guidance documents, excel sheets, and products to help you make better force measurements. We want to make sure everyone knows what makes great equipment used to measure force.
At Morehouse, we educate our customers and provide solutions to you. Most of these solutions are available for free to help you make better measurements and can be found here.
We have been in business for over a century and focus on being the most recognized name in the force sensor calibration business. That vision comes from educating our customers on what matters most and having the proper discussions relating to what makes great equipment used to measure force.
Everything we do, we believe in changing how people think about force and torque calibration. We challenge the "just calibrate it" mentality by educating our customers on what matters, what causes significant errors, and how to focus on reducing them. In addition, Morehouse makes simple-to-use calibration products. We build excellent force equipment that is plumb, level, square, and rigid.
If you have more questions about what makes a great force machine or other questions, don't hesitate to get in touch with us @ 717-843-0081 to talk to a live person or email info@mhforce.com. Visit us on the web at mhforce.com.
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