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Taking Measure of Miniature Load Cells Webinar

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.

Exploring Interface Capabilities and Differentiators

Interface is the largest producer of load cells defined by a particularly important core differentiator. The Interface difference is precision.

How do we maintain this standard of excellence? Interface is directed by our foundational 4-pillars for success: quality, service, accuracy, and innovation. This applies to anything and everything that we do, including manufacturing premium force measurement products, engineering and design, custom solutions, providing calibration and repair, and in our commitment to service.

Interface has long been known for providing accuracy-based sensor technologies, innovative solutions, engineering excellence and quality products that our customers trust. We have detailed our breadth and depth of capabilities and differentiators for our products that are designed to serve customers across a growing number of industries.

In our online capabilities statement, you can find:

  • Interface differentiators
  • Interface core products and expertise
  • Certifications
  • Industry NAICS and PSC Codes
  • Interface’s Company Snapshot

Our customers around the world are innovators, market leaders, boundary-breaking leaders who are finding ways to do things differently, make things safer, improve products and create new solutions, all through the measurement of force. We provide solutions for test and measurement, as well as OEM. This includes companies in aerospace and defense, automotive and vehicle, medical devices, energy, industrial automation, entertainment and amusement, agriculture, maritime, infrastructure, and equipment manufacturing.

As the world’s trusted leader in force measurement technology, design, and manufacturing, it is important that we guarantee the highest quality performance of load cells, torque transducers, multi-axis sensors, wireless telemetry, instrumentation, calibration and more. To do this, it is the Interface people, technology, manufacturing, engineering, and force measurement solutions that make the difference.

Here are just a few of Interface’s key differentiators and capabilities:

  • PROPRIETARY STRAIN GAGES: We make our strain gages and assemble them in the same building that our final sensor testing is performed in-house to ensure the quality and accuracy.
  • THE STANDARD: Interface is the standard for all load cells. Since 1968, our LowProfile® load cells have been used throughout the world because of their accuracy and dependability.
  • CALIBRATION: Our trademarked Gold Standard Calibration System is the industry ‘gold standard’ for test and measurement.
  • SYSTEMS: Interface is the only major load cell company offering a comprehensive system for customers to calibrate their own load cells.
  • CERTIFICATIONS: Every load cell we make is individually calibrated and tested through a series of performance tests before it leaves our facility.
  • STANDARD, ENGINEERED-TO-ORDER AND CUSTOM: We design and build our force measurement solutions, delivering the broadest variety of available options in the industry.
  • TEAM: Our team is an extended network of professionals that design, build, administer, sale to, and support our customers with the best force measurement solutions that fit their exact requirements based on expertise and experience.

You can see all the Interface differentiators in our capabilities statement.

We are proud of the Interface brand, our five-decade legacy as a leader in the industry and fact that we are a women-owned manufacturing company. We guarantee our products quality because every employee and partner take pride in our work. It is our dedication to deliver on our promise.

Capabilities-Statement

New Interface Case Study Exams Weighing and Scales

Test and measurement are used in the development and monitoring of manufactured goods across all industries. With a history of producing force measurement solutions for more than five decades, Interface has supplied a myriad of sensor devices for hundreds of thousands of different use cases and applications.

From the scales we use in packaging centers to the enormous weigh check equipment used in transportation, weighing and scale measurement solutions are instrumental in the successful design, engineering, launch, and maintenance of products and components.

Many of the earliest force sensors were designed for the purpose of weighing objects, and they continue to be a large part of test and measurement today. As products evolve and new inventions enter the market, sensors must maintain their durability, quality, and accuracy for large and miniaturized uses. Therefore, you see inventors and innovators turn to Interface today for sensors that are designed for use in robotics, IoT, and factory automation equipment used for weighing.

Historically, the only difference between now and then is that Interface has perfected accuracy in measurement across with an extensive range of force sensors models, configurations, sizes, capacities, and specification requirements that can measure weight at “jumbo” scale, as well precisely measure exceedingly small, minute forces as an embedded sensor.

Determining accurate weight is a key data point manufacturers need throughout a product lifecycle. Whether they need the information for transporting an object, lifting the object, or just creating a specification sheet, accurate data for weight measurements is fundamental for safety and function. This includes weighing single and combined parts in early design, weighing the manufactured equipment during assembly and production, using scales for weighing output with exact measure, as well as obtaining real-time weight in distribution and transport.

To accomplish this, Interface provides a host of load cells and instrumentation devices. Since our first load cells were designed in 1968, we have built millions of these products for engineers and designers that require the highest precision force sensors for accurate and reliable data collection in test and measurement (T&M). Our customers represent a wide swath of industries, products, equipment types, tools, and electronics that depend on us for proving accuracy, consistency, and reliability in performance in T&M.

In our latest case study, we outline four weigh and scale use cases that utilize Interface sensor technologies. Defined weight as a product specification requires extreme accuracy in measurement. Utilizing precision force sensing solutions and instrumentation enables product engineers and manufacturers to collect data and use it as part of the product design.

Accuracy Matters for Scales and Weighing focuses on weighing and scale applications used with heavy machinery, medical devices, operational containers, and distribution solutions. In each of these instances, utilizing weight in the design, build, and supply of these products is fundamental to each use case and the success for the product.

Weighing and Scales Case Study

 

Testing the Reins

Think of nearly any piece of hardware, especially those with moving components, and chances are a force measurement device was used in its development and testing.

Interface supplies load cells, torque transducers, load pins, tension links, and data acquisition devices utilized in testing hardware components for automobiles, drones, rocket engines, medical devices, bridges, watercraft, and everything in-between including for horses.

The applications for our products grow broader every year, so much so that we are rarely surprised with the ingenuity and innovation abound. There are no limitations, including in the equipment utilized in core agriculture markets, which comprises of products used in the equine industry.

In one customer’s project, were able to provide valuable sensor technology for a test and measurement project for products used with horses. Included below is a brief preview of the two new applications notes we developed based on the specific requirements for this equine industry design.

A customer came to Interface needing to quantify the poll pressure on the bridle of a horse. We created a solution using both a Wireless Telemetry System (WTS) and a Bluetooth® Telemetry System (BTS) Equine 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 to study the dynamic response of the cheekpiece tension to rein tension in the ridden horse. Utilizing the WTS or BTS, the valuable data can be displayed and recorded in real time.

Within the real experimental system these sensors were used to test the tension resulting from the rider’s hands, the horse’s mouth and the bit, the elasticity of the equine mouth provides a “floating” fulcrum and a potential source of time-lag and decoherence between the dynamic rein and cheekpiece tensions. Because the cheekpiece is directly attached to the headpiece, we we’re able to assume that forces seen in the cheekpiece are those that are applied to the poll of the horse.

Want to learn more about this agriculture industry solution?  Be sure to read the Equine Industry WTS and BTS Bridle Tension System application notes.