SCOPE
This guide aims to help anyone wishing to measure force in any industrial or laboratory environment. It is essentially a guide for the user of the measurement and should help him or her to understand the range of measurement techniques available, how to characterise the requirements of his or her particular problem, and how to communicate those needs to manufacturers and suppliers of force measurement equipment. It also aims to give an understanding of the needs for, and methods of, calibrating, operating and maintaining force measurement systems.
The techniques described cover the majority of problems encountered in force measurement, but where the guide cannot go into sufficient detail, the reader is referred to further published documents.
The range of forces covered is from approximately 0.001 to 1,000,000,000 newtons, and those forces may be static or dynamic and single or multi-axis.
The guide is to the measurement of force, including the use of load cells, but force measurement is frequently an integral part of the measurement of weight, torque, impact and acceleration. The guide does not enter into the details of the metrological requirements and problems of those applications, but is of direct use in the way the force measurement system is designed and applied to those needs.
The InstMC guide to the measurement of force, forceguide.pdf, coordinated and edited by Andrew Hunt, is now available online for free. Click on the link to download.