Interface ForceLeaders Summit 2023 will take place in Huntsville, Alabama, on April 20 at the Huntsville Marriot at the Space & Rocket Center. Experts will share valuable insights, tips, product demos, and applications for load cells, transducers, new sensors, instrumentation and more. Registration is required.
Interface experts will detail standard measurement devices that are essential to all testing labs. They will highlight calibration standards and calibration grade equipment, along with instrumentation and data acquisition systems. What types of equipment do you need in the lab to meet the testing demands of today and in the future? Join us to learn more about equipment, best practices, tips and frequently asked questions.
Interface’s first event of 2023 focuses on a growing line of miniaturized load cells and torque transducers. The presentation by Brian Peters and Justin Walker emphasizes that though the form factor is small for Interface Minis, accuracy and measurement capacities are high.
Through out the event Taking Measure of Miniature Load Cells, Interface product experts detailed specific applications and use cases for miniature force measurement devices. Interface’s Minis are commonly used across all types of industries from medical device testing to embedded sensors in machines to provide real-time system health and performance data.
Watch the recorded event here.
After inventing the LowProfile load cell more than five and half decades ago, Interface engineers and founder first introduced the miniature s-type load cells in 1974. How does Interface classify a miniature load cell?
The team also covered new products that provide extremely high accuracy measurement in very small envelopes, including our new SuperSC, ConvexBT, the popular WMC and MRT, along with our new Pillow Block Load Cells. They also highlight some of the special options, including wireless and submersible products. Throughout the recorded event, products were introduced to showcase the range and options available for miniature load cells and torque transducers, including:
You can watch the entire event online on the Interface YouTube Channel. You don’t want to miss out on the answers to our most frequently asked questions, like do you can you calibrate a load button or can you make a mini load cell without cables (wireless)? They also give you the details on the smallest measurement capacity for a miniature load cell and the largest measurement capacity for an Interface miniature. Can you imagine a million lbf mini? Tune in to learn more and a special section on do and don’t tips.
Additional Resources
Miniature Torque Transducers 101
New Technical White Paper Analyzes SuperSC S-Type Miniature Load Cells
Interface Introduces SuperSC S-Type Miniature Load Cell
Superior S-Types Webinar Recap and New SuperSC
MTFS Miniature Tension Force Load Cell
WMCF Miniature Sealed Stainless Steel Load Cell
WMCP Overload Protected Stainless Steel Miniature Load Cell with Male Threads
In today’s Faces of Interface, we share the story about the man behind the money, Eric Cassidy, Manager of Financial Planning and Analysis. Eric has an interesting background rooted in the scientific field and a journey that eventually led him to take a leading position in our Finance Department at Interface.
Eric Cassidy took an unorthodox journey into finance after pursuing an education and early career in chemical engineering. He graduated with a chemical engineering degree from the University of Illinois and went to work for a chemical plant mixing and packaging industrial cleaning supplies. In this role, he was responsible for managing 30 people.
However, Eric realized that this was not what he wanted to do. Rather than sticking it out, he decided to go back to school in the evenings for an MBA in finance. Fortunately, the chemical plant had a great track record of moving engineers in other roles, and he was able to move to a finance role. He stayed with the company for five years.
His background in chemical engineering also allowed him to move to new finance roles within the industry. He served as a controller for 13 years at Ecolab, where he was charged with being a controller for a chemical engineering plant and a few warehouses. When the pandemic hit, he also spent some time working for a bakery for a year before joining Interface.
Eric found Interface when looking for a new job. He lived in Dallas at the time, while his whole family lived in Phoenix. He had never heard of us but found our listing during a job search in the area. It seemed like a terrific opportunity because his chemical engineering degree and background significantly helped with understanding the way things work in a manufacturing facility like Interface’s. As he did more research, he found himself excited about the opportunity due to the level of engineering that goes into our products.
He joined on as the Manager of Financial Planning and Analysis. He quickly got to work revamping the budgets for all departments, performing a cost analysis, and creating a system to help keep better track of financial data. Eric worked hard to review all financial details for Interface to fix material costs and absorption matching to get the budget back in order and improve pricing on products.
Eric mentioned that the work he has done for Interface so far has been a challenge, but it is what he enjoys most about the role. He enjoys taking on difficult problems and finding impactful solutions. As mentioned before, he also genuinely enjoys the level of precision and details that go into the products we make, and he appreciates his role in getting these products in the hands of customers.
Outside of the office, Eric is a big history buff and enjoys reading historical biographies on prominent figures and events in history. When we spoke with Eric, he was digging into Richard Rhodes’ The Making of the Atomic Bomb. To stay active, he can also often be found working out or hitting one of the many incredible golf courses found here in Arizona.
Eric’s financial and leadership expertise and experience has been critical to Interface and were thrilled to have him on the team. Learn more about Interface’s excellent staff in our Faces of Interface ForceLeaders series highlighting the individuals across all departments and disciplines making Interface the world’s premium force measurement solutions provider.
ForceLeaders is a registered trademark of Interface, Inc.
Interface force measurement engineers and solution experts host an online discussion focused on products used to withstand one or more conditions related to temperature, cycling, moisture, environmental stresses. Learn about Interface’s stainless steel load cells, environmentally sealed options, submersible test and measurement products, enclosures, wireless capabilities, load pins, intrinsically safe products. We detail solutions used for all types of applications used in industries that include medical device, aerospace and defense, industrial automation, infrastructure, maritime and general test & measurement. We discuss sensors models, capabilities, features and FAQs. We dive into use cases, tips, measurement know-how and OEM products.
In our continued effort to ensure we fulfill the growing demands for products and solutions that meet the needs of challenging and innovative applications, we produced a record number of new support resources and material in 2022. We know that the more we share, the more we empower our customers to find the right products that meet their exact requirements.
In our final recap of 2022, we want to share with you the most frequented and utilized resources found on our website this past year. We also think this will be helpful to bookmark for future reference to easily navigate these commonly used tools and requested pages on the vast Interface website. The following is the top 10 resources used by our test and measurement customers.
You can find all of Interface’s recorded webinars, product videos, training support and application videos posted here.
Supporting you is a top priority. Interface experts and application engineers are ready to help you, if you are unable to find exactly what you need. Interface has global technical experts available to assist you with your product requirements, systems, support, and questions. Here are a few other commonly used resources you can find online.
“2022 was a record year in many ways for Interface, now in our 55th year of serving the needs for precision sensor customers. We are incredibly grateful for the trust our customers placed in us to support them in creating the world’s most demanding applications, and we are appreciative to our team for their continued hard work and dedication. We look forward to another momentous year in 2023.” Greg Adams, CEO at Interface
In today’s Faces of Interface series, we are talking to one of the newest members of our distinguished sales team, Dave Reardon, regional sales director. Dave grew up around the force measurement industry and has made his way to Interface after a distinguished career in the aerospace industry.
Dave Reardon has known the world of strain gages since he was young. His father was a long-time strain gage expert in the aerospace industry and Dave followed in his footsteps. He also took a liking to the industry at an early age, participating in CAD classes in high school followed by attending Cal State Long Beach in pursuit of an electrical engineering degree. He ended up finishing his bachelor’s degree, switching to information technologies at University of Phoenix, followed by a master’s degree in business administration from Kaplan.
His first role came as an assistant engineer for aerospace industry giant McDonnell Douglas. His role involved flight test engineering team as needed, until they learned about his CAD skills, at which time they had him primarily doing strain gage drawings.
Over the next 18 years, Dave took his talents across a wide variety of aerospace leaders including Lockheed Martin, Gulfstream Aerospace, Bombardier, The Boeing Company, and more. His roles varied from instrumentation engineering in flight test, to test directing in avionics development labs, and eventually sales. On the sales side, he was working with systems very akin to Interface’s portfolio including data acquisition, telemetry products, and sensors. He even owned his own rep firm for a time that included a few sensor lines in addition to other testing equipment.
A few months ago, Dave was looking for a new opportunity. He was well acquainted with Interface’s products and when he saw an opportunity to work here, he jumped on it with the help of a referral from a friend. Dave came to Interface as our regional sales director in charge of the East Coast. His long-time work in aerospace industry, and specifically his knowledge of strain gages and sensors, made him a great fit in this role.
His responsibilities include managing sales across the region, working with customers daily to find a solution that is right for their specific needs, working with applications engineers, and managing rep firms across the large territory. Dave works across all industries; however, with his background in aerospace, in addition to automotive, he certainly knows what fits bests for those industries.
Dave has made an incredibly positive impact on our team at Interface. Dave mentioned what he enjoys the most is that he has never worked for a company with better communication internally and throughout our community. He specifically highlighted the marketing team’s ability to continue driving leads as critical benefit of working sales at Interface. He also loves collaborating with customers and seeing the incredible potential of the innovation landscape.
When he is not solving customer challenges with force systems, Dave is usually off traveling. He has visited 46 of the 50 states, as well as multiple countries. He lives in Daytona Beach, Florida, but still loves to vacation in other beach destinations. Italy is his favorite international get away so far, having spent two weeks there back in 2014. Dave also has five grown children, a grandchild, with another on the way.
We appreciate Dave taking the time to speak with us and look forward to watching him flourish here at Interface . To learn more about our incredible team members, check in each month for a new Face of Interface’s feature. You can see all our ForceLeaders here.
In today’s Faces of Interface feature, we spoke with Robert Hawk, director of information technology (IT). He is responsible for keeping Interface’s business operational using all kinds of hardware and software, which is core to our fundamental success.
Robert was our very first IT guru at the company and since joining the company and has helped modernize our systems to keep our operations running smoothly. We sat down with Robert to learn about his background and get some insight on everything he does for Interface, our customers, our partners, and global network.
Robert’s background in the world of information technology started with his time in United States Army. He spent his early years in the service with the Infantry. When looking for new opportunities and challenges for his career, he switched his military specialty to Communications and IT, and he then transitioned to the Wyoming Army National Guard.
During his time with the National Guard, Robert worked as an Admin NCO for the 115th Fires Brigade and the IT Department at the F.E. Warren Air Force Base Medical Center. While doing all this, he also continued his support of the Communications and IT section as a Wyoming Army National Guard soldier serving on weekends. Thank you for your service! He obtained two Master of Science graduate degrees, one in Computer Information Systems and one in Computer Engineering.
Robert’s transition to the private sector was as an outsourced IT consultant, serving customers in Wyoming and then Arizona. It was a demanding role that required long hours and some travel; however, it was a wonderful experience. He decided that he wanted to spend more time with his family, and this is when he found Interface.
Interface hired Rob as our first official IT guy in 2014. In fact, which was the name of the role at the time – IT Guy! In the eight years since Rob joined Interface, he has brought our technology light years forward to meet the demands of a growing and thriving manufacturing technology brand leader. The company’s investments in IT allowed Rob to modernize our infrastructure, systems and vastly improve our digital efficiency internally, and with customers. One example is our transition from Windows 95 to Windows 11. He and his team are now rolling out an entire ERP system that will create huge efficiencies and capabilities for the 54-year-old business.
His role at Interface includes managing a team of nine information technology people who are responsible for ensuring the business and production is running smoothly, all the time for a 24/7 business. He is committed to always staying on the lookout for innovative technologies to help streamline operations, support continuous improvements, and help stay on the forefront of ways to engage with all stakeholders. He is also keen to keeping Interface on the forefront of information security.
One thing that you will certainly learn from Rob is that he loves his work because he enjoys helping Interface in their role of helping our customers achieve remarkable things across a wide variety of applications.
Robert is a bit of a workaholic, so part of his free time includes learning, recertifying, and reading up on the newest technologies. He is definitely an IT guy through and through. When he gets some time away, his hobbies include giving back to the military community through charity work with veteran’s organizations. He also loves to ride his motorcycle. Most importantly, he spends time with his three kids aged 21, 19 and 12. In fact, the 19-year-old works for us here at Interface!
Robert is a critical member of Interface’s team, and we could not provide the outstanding technology solutions we do without his work on our digital systems. We thank him for his dedication to his craft and to Interface! What keeps him up at night, keeps us running all day!
Interface’s event, Ruggedized Test and Measurement Solutions, details various transducers, instrumentation and accessories that are designed to withstand environmental stresses and harsh conditions.
The types of testing use case that require ruggedized solutions are material testing, high and low temperature environments, structural and fatigue tests, high cycle count tests, any test for products exposure to moisture or humidity, pressure tests, as well as underwater and in-fluid tests. As noted, this applies to every industry, including maritime, aerospace, food packaging, consumer products, construction, medical devices and automotive.
Interface considers ruggedization as force measurement solutions designed and fabricated for use in extreme environments and applications, ability to operate within accuracy specifications while withstanding one or more environmental stresses or harsh conditions.
During this event, Ken Bishop and Elliot Speidell details the top factors when evaluating test and measurement products used in extreme environments, such as exposure to high or low temperatures, depth of submersion, moisture and water concerts, dust, and other harsh conditions. They present key questions to answer when evaluating your testing requirements, as well as top considerations.
These important evaluation subjects and ruggedized product factors are based on years of experience in collaborating with companies around the world. They define use cases and actual examples of Interface load pins, instrumentation, stainless steel load cells, enclosures and accessories used in all types of harsh and even hazardous environments.
Here is a quick preview of all the topics thoroughly discussed during this event.
The entire online seminar is now available on-demand. Watch it here.
Top Selling Interface Ruggedized ProductsThese types of products follow strict certification standards and ratings. During the online seminar, Interface product experts detail the standards and ratings related to intrinsically safe products, sometimes referred to as hazardous location use, as well as solutions designed to meet safety, regulatory or compliance requirements.
The standard ensures that an intrinsically safe device is incapable of triggering combustion or igniting any gasses or vapors. The device is safe to use around dust and gas without risking static electricity or heat discharge from the device igniting the surrounding volatile gasses, powders, and liquids. Explosion proof applies to a device enclosed in a case that can withstand a gas or vapor explosion. Should there be an explosion, it will be contained within the enclosure.
Interface offers products with different IP ratings, including IP66, IP67 and IP68 applied to different transducers and instrumentation. Ingress protection (IP) ratings, which grade the resistance of an enclosure against the intrusion of dust or liquids ingress protection (IP) ratings, which grade the resistance of an enclosure against the intrusion of dust or liquids.
What is the difference between IP66 and IP68? IP68 enclosures also provide dust-tight performance against solids. However, they are also rated for significantly better defense against water ingress than an IP66 enclosure. An IP68 enclosure can withstand submersion for over 30-minutes at up to a specified water depth.
Interface also has a range of instrumentation products that are NEMA, and IP rated based on the enclosure and housing designs. These include:
Interface offers standard and customized solutions. Contact our application engineers to discuss your options and how to ensure you have the right product to match the conditions of our test and measurement environment.
