Although strain gauge load cells are the most common, there are other types of load cells as well. In industrial applications, hydraulic (or hydrostatic) is probably the second most common, and these are utilized to eliminate some problems with strain gauge load cell devices. As an example, a hydraulic load cell is immune to transient voltages (lightning) so might be a more effective device in outdoor environments.
Other types include piezo-electric load cells (useful for dynamic measurements of force), and vibrating wire load cells, which are useful in geomechanical applications due to low amounts of drift.
Every load cell is subject to "ringing" when subjected to abrupt load changes. This stems from the spring-like behavior of load cells. In order to measure the loads, they have to deform. As such, a load cell of finite stiffness must have spring-like behavior, exhibiting vibrations at its natural frequency. An oscillating data pattern can be the result of ringing. Ringing can be suppressed in a limited fashion by passive means. Alternatively, a control system can use an actuator to actively damp out the ringing of a load cell. This method offers better performance at a cost of significant increase in complexity.
Load cell types
- double ended shear beam
- single ended shear beam
- single column
- multi column
- membrane
- torsion ring
- bending ring
- pancake
Applications
- electronic crane scales
- finding the center of gravity of an object by weight
- force measurement
- Force gauge
- hopper, tank and vessel weighing
- onboard weighing
- railcar weighing
- structural health monitoring
- tension measurement
- truck weighing
- wireless crane scales
- "S" Type
References
External links
- Load cell glossary of terms
- Introduction to Load Cells
- How it works (interactive)
- Load cell tutorial
- Diagrams of load cell applications
- What is a Load Cell?
- Capacitive Load Cell Technology
- Load Cell Technology
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Last updated on Wednesday July 23, 2008 at 06:47:41 PDT (GMT -0700)
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