Force Measurement Finds Festive Applications This Holiday Season
Every year, we learn about thousands of new test and measurement use cases and projects requiring precision load cells. We like to highlight the range of applications and the ingenuity of how our customers utilize Interface’s measurement solutions to expand research, engineer inventions, launch new products, and monitor the performance of everything from energy structures at sea to critical medical devices.
We’ve taken a little creative license to showcase the festive possibilities of using our sensor technologies during the holiday season. Let’s take a little sleigh ride through some actual and imaginative ways load cells and instrumentation can make things bright and jolly.
Gift Wrapping Machine
During the holidays, gift wrap is wound onto rollers for store distribution in retail. A tension monitoring system ensures the paper is wound securely without tearing, maintaining its quality as it’s prepared for use.
Interface ILMP Stainless Steel Load Pins are installed in the winding machine’s roller shafts. Each load pin is connected to the BX8-AS BlueDAQ Series Data Acquisition Instrumentation. The BX8-AS collects the force readings from the strain gage load pins, which can be displayed and monitored when connected to a computer with the supplied BlueDAQ software. Read more.
Christmas Tree Irrigation System
With today’s smart technology systems, live Christmas trees need an irrigation system to keep the tree watered and healthy throughout the holiday season and beyond. A wireless force measurement solution is needed to monitor the water used to ensure the tree is watered just the right amount.
Interface suggests installing four MBI Overload Protected Miniature Beam Load Cells under the Christmas tree watering structure. The trees are watered, and the amount of water that is collected is weighed simultaneously. A JB104SS 4-Channel Stainless Steel Junction Box is connected to each load cell and to a WTS-AM-1E Wireless Strain Bridge Transmitter Module that wirelessly transmits the sum weight to the WTS-BS-1-HA Wireless Handheld Display for multiple transmitters. The WTS-BS-6 Wireless Telemetry Dongle Base Station connects to a computer to display, log, and graph the results, which are also viewable instantaneously. Read more.
Sleigh Scale
Santa Claus is preparing for the big trip to give his gifts to children worldwide. A weighing system is needed to ensure his sleigh is not overloaded during the transportation flight. Interface suggests installing multiple WTS 1200 LowProfile™ Load Cells in the sleigh weighing scale. Santa’s sleigh with a large bag of toys goes over it, and the load cells will capture the weight. Results transmit wirelessly to the WTS-BS-4 Industrial Base Station connected to the customer’s PC with the provided Log100 software. The WTS-LD2 Wireless Large LED Display can also display the weight inside for the driver to see as they fly through the night’s starry eve. Read more.
Turkey Weighing
A weighing system to help determine a specific weight for the turkeys for the holidays is a must-have. This farmer needs a system to ensure accurate weight measurements to keep their birds at their ideal weight. They also need a system that can withstand harsh conditions and unusual temperatures.
Interface’s SPI Low Capacity Platform Scale Load Cell can undergo strained temperatures and transmits highly accurate results. A plate can be put on top of the SPI, and then a turkey can be weighed on top of the plate. Data results can be displayed on the 480 Bidirectional Digital Weight Indicator. Read more.
Reindeer Bridle Tension
The customer needs to quantify the so-called “poll pressure.” Bits designed to give strong poll pressure using simple pulley lever principles show a much-attenuated transfer of the rein tension through the bit to the poll. The attenuation is readily understood when the reindeer’s mouth is recognized as a “floating” fulcrum degrading an ideal lever’s otherwise required fixed pivot point.
A WTS Reindeer Bridle Tension System, with two SMA Miniature S-Type Load Cells in both the line of the reins and that of the cheekpiece on one side of the horse, is used to study the dynamic response of the cheekpiece tension to rein tension in the ridden horse. Utilizing the Wireless Telemetry System (WTS), valuable data can be displayed and recorded in real-time using a PC or a handheld receiver, depending on the requirements and preferences of the customer. Read more.
We hope you enjoyed our festive applications. We all at Interface wish you a season of peace, joy, and inspiration. We are grateful for all the opportunities to work with people worldwide. Your ingenuity motivates us to provide the best measurement solutions today, tomorrow, and every day.
Happy Holidays!
