Products Catalog

Specification

The piezoelectric measuring principle is ideal for designing multi-component force sensors. The sensor assembly is similar to that of the single-component load washer. One pair of quartz rings cut for the longitudinal effect serves to
measure the standard component Fz, while another pair cut for the shear effect is used to measure the two shear components Fx and Fy. Because the shear forces are transmitted only by stiction, the multi-component force sensors must always be fitted under sufficiently high mechanical preloading.

As a rule, multi-component force sensors are fitted into dynamometers or force plates not singly but in groups of three or four, making use of the piezoelectric characteristics which enable sensors of equal sensitivity to be connected directly in parallel.

The output signal obtained corresponds to the algebraic sum of the individual forces. For this reason, a dynamometer acts as a single multi-component force sensor, which measures the three components of the applied force independently of the force application point.

While moments acting on a dynamometer load the sensor, the parallel connection ensures that they are not measured. However, moments can be determined from the individual output signals received from the sensors which are not connected in parallel. This type of system measures the three components of the resulting force and the three components of the resulting moment, based on the coordinates determined by the sensors. Most Kistler dynamometers and force plates are suitable both for 3-component force measurement and for 6-component force-moment measurement.