Someone Taught Us Once. Here's How We Pay It Forward Through Community and Trustworthy Calibration Services Why our family endowed an engineering scholarship at York College of Pennsylvania, and why every manufacturer/calibration company in this county should consider something similar Somebody helped set the foundation for continuing education and learning. In my case it was […]
Tell Me Whose Day Was Better Because You Were in It: Showing Appreciation in the Metrology Community In December 1989, United States forces cornered Manuel Noriega inside the Vatican embassy in Panama City. The story everyone repeats is the rock playlist. Van Halen’s “Panama.” The Clash. Guns N’ Roses at volume, aimed at the nunciature […]
The ASTM E74 Lower Limit Factor: What it is, What it is Not, and How to Use it in a Measurement Uncertainty Analysis Many people in this business know their instruments, standards, and processes. The trouble starts when something new lands in the scope. A parameter shows up that nobody on staff has had to […]
A Load Cell Is a Spring You Learn to Trust: A Guide to Strain Gauge Load Cells A load cell is a precision spring: a strain gauge load cell converts the elastic element's deformation under force into an electrical signal through bonded strain gauges and a Wheatstone bridge. Non-linearity, hysteresis, and creep all describe how […]
The Honest Answer that May Have Cost us a Million Dollars: Why Trustworthy Calibration Services Matter “You can’t handle the truth!” – Colonel Jessup, A Few Good Men Colonel Jessup was wrong about most things, but he was onto something: the truth is not always what people want to hear. Not long ago, a prospective […]
Force Measurement Traceability: Why Every Link in the Chain must Carry more Doubt than the One Above it "A chain is no stronger than its weakest link." Everyone knows the proverb. Force measurement traceability runs the proverb backward: every link in the chain must carry more doubt than the link above it, and a laboratory […]
Custom High Temperature Load Cells for Downhole Applications Above 400 °F (204 °C) Donut-style (through-hole) high temperature load cells and compression fixtures on the bench at Morehouse. Put a cast-iron skillet with a plastic handle into a 450 °F (232 °C) oven. The pan will be fine. The handle will not. A strain gauge load […]
Force Calibration Safety: The Day Three Threads Let Go A technician set up a tension calibration in a 200 000 lbf (890 kN) machine, threaded the connection together, and started applying force. Only three complete threads were engaged. The internal threads stripped, the connection separated, and everything above the failure point released at once. Three […]
Two Degrees Off: What Mount Erebus Teaches Us About Measurement Bias I recently read 10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy, and one story in it made me think about calibration, specifically a paper I wrote three years ago on bias. Before we get to that, here’s more about what […]
