2 Facts About How a Force Transducer Measures Force
#1 What is a Transducer?
In the broad sense of the term, a transducer is a device that turns one type of energy into another type. Some examples are:
What is a transducer, battery example
- A battery is a transducer that converts chemical energy into electrical energy. The chemical reactions involve electrons' flow from one material to another through an external circuit.
- A thermometer is a transducer that converts heat energy into the mechanical displacement of a liquid column. As the temperature around the bulb heats up, the liquid expands and rises.
- A load cell is a transducer that converts mechanical energy into electrical signals. As compressive or tensile force is exerted on a load cell, the mechanical energy is converted into equivalent electrical signals.
#2 How a Force Transducer Measures Force
As force is exerted on a force transducer, the material deflects. The deflection is typically measured by a strain gauge, which is placed on the material inside the force transducer aka load cell.
When placed appropriately, the strain gauge will measure the change in resistance as force is applied. The ideal force transducer only measures force in defined directions and ignores force components in all other directions. Approaching the ideal involves optimizing many design choices, including the mechanical structure, the gage pattern, placement on the gages, and the number of gages.
When a meter or indicator is hooked up to a force transducer, it displays the force measurement value. A force transducer may be calibrated at a company like Morehouse using deadweight primary standards known to be within 0.002 % of applied force. The machine's deadweights are adjusted for local gravity, air density, and material density to apply the force accurately.
The weights are used to calibrate the force transducer, which may be used to calibrate and verify a testing machine.
2 Facts About How a Force Transducer Measures 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 understands what a force transducer is and how a force transducer measures 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 is force, and why force is important, so everyone understands the concepts.
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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. Morehouse provides unparalleled calibration service with less than two-week lead times.
Want to watch the video on why use Morehouse for your load cell calibration? It can be found here.
Please contact 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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