Load Cell Stability – How It Can Kill Your Uncertainty Budget Load cells are a combination of metal, strain gauges, adhesive, and more. Like humans, every measuring instrument is subject to aging. Load cells age from mechanical stress or fatigue, and over time this ensures that there will be some instability in the system. Some […]
Guidance on Uncertainty Budgets for Force Measuring Devices Part 4. Calculating Uncertainty for ISO 376 Uncertainty Analysis ISO 376 Uncertainty Analysis Introduction: All calibration laboratories accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 are required to submit uncertainty calculations for the Calibration and Measurement Capability uncertainty claims included in the scope of accreditation. The assumptions made for the determination […]
Guidance on Uncertainty Budgets for Force Measuring Devices Part 3. Calculating Uncertainty for Force Measuring Devices for Measurement or Calculating Uncertainty for Force Measuring Devices Background: Currently, there are discrepancies regarding what is acceptable for a force calibration uncertainty budget. A common mistake is to include too many lines from the load cell specification sheet. For […]
Guidance on Uncertainty Budgets for Force Measuring Devices Part 2. Calculating Uncertainty in Accordance with ASTM E74 Standard Calculating Uncertainty in accordance with ASTM E74 Standard Background: ASTM E74 Standard Practice of Calibration of Force-Measuring Instruments for Verifying the Force Indication of Testing Machines is the standard followed by many in North America for the […]
Guidance on Uncertainty Budgets for Force Measuring Devices Part 1. Why Do We Need a Solid Guidance Document? Uncertainty Budgets for Force Measuring Devices Introduction: All calibration laboratories accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 must submit uncertainty calculations for the Calibration and Measurement Capability uncertainty claims included in the scope of accreditation. The assumptions made to determine the uncertainty […]
What Happens When You Overshoot a Test Point? Various calibration laboratories use hydraulic, screw, and other force calibration machines where it is difficult not to overshoot a test point. By talking about overshooting a test point, we are referring to loading past the desired point and then letting the creep in the hydraulic system naturally […]
The Top 5 Costly Force Measurement Mistakes #1 of 5 Costly force measurement mistakes Most calibration laboratories will say a device is "In Tolerance" without considering the uncertainty of their measurement process. This equates to you not using a calibration laboratory that has standards to meet your needs and accounts for measurement risk properly. Most […]
How Do You Know if Your Device is “In-Tolerance”? Why the Location of the Measurement is More Important than You May Realize Calling an instrument “In Tolerance” is about the location, location, and location of the measurement. It’s also about the uncertainty of the measurement, but a bad location is going to raise the Probability […]
Making a Statement of Compliance: The 3 Main Reasons Calibration Laboratories Fail to Get Things Right Making a statement of compliance introduction. About a year after turning 40, I bought a pair of reading glasses. After another year, I started noticing a decrease in my overall vision and figured I needed to visit an eye […]
3 Rules to Reduce Your Measurement Risk 3 Rules to Reduce Your Measurement Risk Bad Measurements Happen! Technicians are Fallible! The Wrong Equipment is Used! Almost everyone has had problems related to bad measurement practices—some of which have resulted in serious devastation. There was the BP oil refinery explosion in Texas, the Hubble telescope with […]
What is Measurement Risk? What is Measurement Risk - Imagine that a satellite is launched into space and communications are intermittent. This happens because the satellite is wobbling, which causes connectivity problems in the receiver. The cause of the wobbling is identified: it is the result of not using a calibration provider with a low […]
Does Resolution Need to be in an Uncertainty Budget? There’s a question I’ve heard asked more often than it should be: "Does resolution need to be in an uncertainty budget?" If the device’s resolution is digital—displaying the least-significant digit increment as a single digit from zero to nine—it is assumed that it somehow increments or […]
