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 […]
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 […]
Why Do Force Calibration Adapters Matter? The Measurable Cost of the Wrong Setup A load cell that reads to 0.005 % of full scale in the laboratory can degrade to 0.5 % of full scale, or worse, in the field, mounted with adapters that introduce bending, side loading, or torsion. Same cell. Same certificate on […]
How to Calibrate Button Load Cells in Compression: A Guide for Button Load Cell Calibration A button load cell looks like the easiest thing in the world to calibrate. It is small, it takes load through a domed top, and you set it under a press and push. What could go wrong 😊? Almost everything, […]
How to Calibrate an Analog Dynamometer: Set it up the Way it is Used Pictured above is a 10 000 lbf Analog Dynamometer in a Morehouse 10 000 lbf BCM. An analog dynamometer has no electronics to trust and no digital display to read for you. It has a spring element, a mechanical linkage, and […]
Common Tension Force Calibration Setups: Let the Load Find its Own Axis Pull a load cell in tension, and you introduce a problem compression may not have. The load string can twist. A thread can cock a few thousandths off center. A clevis pin can sit against one side of its hole instead of being […]
Common Compression Force Calibration Setups: Keeping the Load Line Pure Common Compression Force Calibration Setups: Keeping the Load Line Pure Intro A load cell that reads to 0.005 % of full scale on the bench can degrade to 0.5 % of full scale, or worse, once it is mounted with the wrong hardware. Same […]
Why Your Calibration Lab's Uncertainty Number Is Costing You Money (And Risk You Don't Know About And How to Reduce Calibration Uncertainty) How measurement uncertainty drives false accept and false reject decisions, and why it matters for your quality system. If you've ever had a perfectly good instrument fail calibration, or worse, had a bad one pass, you've experienced the real-world consequences of measurement uncertainty. Most […]
What Causes Force Measurement Errors- What Not to Do: Examples of Unsafe or Bad Measurement Practice Expanded explanations and technical basis from Force Calibration for Technicians and Quality Managers (Zumbrun, 2026) This is a selection of examples in our new E-book which explains in much greater detail why each pictured setup represents poor force measurement […]
