New to Force Measurements: A Beginner's Guide to Force Measurements
Morehouse Instrument Company has shared tremendous knowledge throughout the years with blogs, technical papers, and webinars. This education aligns with our purpose to create a safer world by helping companies improve their force and torque measurements.
The information can be overwhelming when someone is new to calibration or metrology. There is so much to digest that people can quickly become overwhelmed. Some have joked that an introduction to metrology is like trying to drink through a firehouse.
Morehouse has created several documents to help anyone new to making force measurements. We also recommend several other good practice guides and general knowledge about calibration.
The first document we recommend is our Force Calibration Guidance for Beginners.
When you are new to making force measurements, this document aims at simplifying the "basics" of force measurements. Force Calibration Guidance for Beginners provides a basic understanding of force calibration, the methods and instruments used, industry standards, and best practices.
The next document we deem critical is our Force Calibration Adapters Guidance document, as one of the largest sources of error in mechanical measurements is the improper use of adapters. The importance of adapters cannot be stressed enough, as errors that are 20 to 50 times higher than expected can occur if a customer's device is calibrated in a method different from the way it is used.
The third document and not third because of importance, though third as a basic understanding of terms and knowledge that should be required before making measurements is our force safety guidance document.
The fourth document will be one for anyone calibrating load cells; it is our Load Cell Troubleshooting Guidance. We like this document because it can save a technician hundreds if not thousands, of hours over their career in finding a simplistic approach to troubleshoot load cells.
Now is the harder part, do we continue with force or recommend other documents, as there is still much more to learn about force? Our free e-book is highly recommended, as are our free webinars and paid classes. Information on our force training and webinars can be found here.
The fifth document comes from our good friends at NPL and is titled Guide to the Measurement of Force. This document will serve as a review of the Force Calibration Guidance for Beginners document.
It adds numerous layers by discussing the characteristics of load cells and other force measurement systems.
Tied for sixth are two great documents, listed as sixth and seventh, as once one understands the importance of adapters and how to make the force measurements, it is time to dabble in the realm of uncertainty.
The sixth document is Calculating Force Uncertainty for Force Machines. Calculating Force Uncertainty for force machines. This free document identifies all significant contributions to measurement uncertainty when using a force-calibrating machine.
Calculating Force Uncertainty describes what is needed to achieve a measurement uncertainty better than 0.02 % of the applied force.
The seventh document on our list is Introduction to Statistics in Metrology.
The eighth recommended document is NPL's Good Practice Guide to Uncertainty of Measurement. NPL does a fantastic job of simplifying measurement uncertainty.
There are many more great documents, and some start getting repetitious.
Our original thought was to list 10 documents, though it gets overwhelming quickly. Therefore, we will give honorable mention to other documents such as UKAS LAB 48, UKAS M3003, NCSLI RP-3 for writing procedures, NIST technical note 1297, and The Metrology Handbook 3rd edition (we wrote two new chapters and refreshed a third one).
We also highly recommend our new Version 2 e-book, which can be downloaded by filling out our pop-up form.
New to Force Measurements: A Beginner's Guide to Force Measurements - 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 ensure everyone has the resources they need to succeed.
We have been in business for over a century and focus on being the most recognized name in the force sensor calibration business.
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 plumb, level, square, and rigid.
If you have more questions about tension link calibration, need adapters, load cells, calibration, 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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