So load cells are your thing. At least that’s what you’re telling me by even getting this far. Ok, well lets first find out what a load cell is. A load cell is a type of transducer or high precision electronic sensor that can be designed for any type of force measurement.
Most industrial load cells use strain gauges. What is a strain gauge you ask? Well, it’s a thin, I mean thinner then foil, wire that when placed and secured on a surface of an object measures the strain of that said object. Here a little back story about the strain gage.
In 1843 there was this guy Sir Charles Wheatstone he was an English researcher. Using some old technology called a strain gauge. Cause a strain gage cause was 10 years old at the time… Two Americans had already laid claim to that invention. The original idea as thought up by Arthur Claude Ruge. Was to take a piece of cigarette paper and glue a thin wire to it leaving leads on the opposite ends. Then glue the now finished strain gauge to a water tanks outer metal wall. As the tank is filled its metal wall will stretch, causing the strain gauge’s resistance to change. Therefore allowing Sir Charles Wheatstone to be able to design his namesake The Wheatstone Bridge. We will discuss that in another post. It’s just the name for the type of circuit that allows for the accurate voltage measurement of the strain gauge.
So with all that you can get an idea of how a load cell works. The theory on how a load cell works is very simple but that’s about where simplicity stops. It’s in the design aspect where things get convoluted. Load cells are used in many applications. Medical, military, industrial, agricultural, aerospace, and many more.
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