Online Load Cell Info

One of the most popular designs for an industrial robot is the robotic arm. Just like your arm, a robotic arm requires arm segments, joints, a way to move those joints, and a sense of touch.

A typical robotic arm is made up of several metal segments, joined by joints. The computer controls the robotic arm by rotating individual step motors connected to each joint. Sometimes larger arms use hydraulics or pneumatics for joint control. Unlike ordinary motors, step motors move in exact increments. This allows the computer to move the robotic arm very precisely, repeating exactly the same movement over and over again. The industrial robot uses motion sensors to make sure it moves just the right amount.

In order to do different jobs, a robotic arm get a special ‘hand’ for each job. There are many types of special ‘hands’ called ‘end effectors’. One common end effector can grasp and carry different objects. To give a robotic hand a sense of touch, it has built-in load cells that tell the computer how hard the industrial robot is gripping a particular object. This keeps the industrial robot from dropping or crushing whatever it’s carrying. Other end effectors include blowtorches, drills and spray painters. A robotic arm might twist the caps onto peanut butter jars coming down an assembly line or drill holes, or pick up a piece and put it on another piece. An industrial robot can often do this repetitive work more efficiently than human beings because they are so precise. A robot always drills in the exactly the same place, and always tightens bolts with the same amount of force, no matter how many hours it’s been working. Many industrial robots work in auto assembly lines, putting cars together. An industrial robot is very strong, lifting large car pieces easily, and never get tired. Even though an industrial robot is capable of great strength, it is also capable of performing very delicate operations as well. This makes them very useful in the computer industry which requires an incredibly precise hand to put together a tiny microchip.

Motorcycles are being designed with greater functionality, higher performance, and higher speed. The motorcycle test rider must be highly skilled because the rider himself, his body type, his position, as well as the repeatability of his actions affect the usefulness of the test. Not to mention that in order to test the motorcycle at the edges of its capability, there is a possibility of injury for the test rider. In order to solve these problems–repeatability of tests and possibility of injury–The use of some sort of remote control comes to mind. After all, every little boy has probably driven a small scale remote control motorcycle. But simply wiring up the motorcycle itself to a remote controller isn’t the answer because electronic response isn’t all that is being tested. The tests require a human shape and weight on the cycle, plus part of the test is control pressure and responsiveness. The answer is a human shaped motorcycle riding robot.

In 2002, Yahama Motor began using a control system for automated testing of their motorcycles by a human-shaped robot. In this measurement system, the anthropomorphic robot controls the accelerator, shift, and clutch operations on a driving test bench.

The robot rides the motorcycle in a wind tunnel. The motorcycle stays on the chassis dynamo and wind flows from front to back of the cycle at the same speed as the running speed of the cycle. The driving patterns can be controlled automatically using the built-in driving programs, so the operator only has to press the start button in the operation room to have the robot carry out the evaluation test. The control data gives drive commands to the robot, and sets the environment and load conditions. As the test progresses, the driving status and data from load cells are recorded.

A robot is helping stroke victims regain movement in their arms. The robot was created by Jules Dewald, PhD, associate professor of physical therapy and human movement sciences, physical medicine, and rehabilitation and biomedical engineering at Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, and Wim Lam, owner and general manager of Lam Design Management of Orchard Park, NY.

Most people who have suffered a stroke find reaching out very difficult to do unless the arm is fully supported. Up to now to facilitate rehabilitation, stroke victims have used an air bearing device that slides over a large table, but this is a clumsy solution. Lam s company represented a robot called the HapticMASTER from Netherlands-based Moog FCS B.V., and Lam suggested that perhaps the robot could replace a real table with a virtual one to make rehabilitation for stroke victims easier. The idea was to create a virtual world for stroke victims, so that the weight of their arm could be fully eliminated and then gradually reintroduced as their rehabilitation progressed.

A chair created by Biodex Medical Devices,Shirley, NY, provides an adjustable seat that allows individuals to be placed in the correct position with respect to the robot. The combination of the Biodex chair and the HapticMASTER robot created the new ACT3D rehabilitation system.The built-in interface, which supports the hand and forearm, is connected to a gimble, which is attached to a special load cell.

The computer creates a virtual world with objects and responds to a patient’s movements. The robot processes 3-D information, allowing the stroke victim to see his arm and the virtual objects in space.It generates a sensation of contact with physical objects. The video interface Feedback provides a realistic feel to the objects in the virtual environment. Over time, the robot can be set to to allow the patient to control more and more of the weight of his arm, until he can deal with the real weight of the arm as he explores the work space.

The next iteration of the ACT3D, which helps the rehabilitation of hand and finger dexterity, is already in progress.

Motorcycles are being designed with greater functionality, higher performance, and higher speed. The motorcycle test rider must be highly skilled because the rider himself, his body type, his position, as well as the repeatability of his actions affect the usefulness of the test. Not to mention that in order to test the motorcycle at the edges of its capability, there is a possibility of injury for the test rider. In order to solve these problems–repeatability of tests and possibility of injury–The use of some sort of remote control comes to mind. After all, every little boy has probably driven a small scale remote control motorcycle. But simply wiring up the motorcycle itself to a remote controller isn’t the answer because electronic response isn’t all that is being tested. The tests require a human shape and weight on the cycle, plus part of the test is control pressure and responsiveness. The answer is a human shaped motorcycle riding robot.

In 2002, Yahama Motor began using a control system for automated testing of their motorcycles by a human-shaped robot. In this measurement system, the anthropomorphic robot controls the accelerator, shift, and clutch operations on a driving test bench.

The robot rides the motorcycle in a wind tunnel. The motorcycle stays on the chassis dynamo and wind flows from front to back of the cycle at the same speed as the running speed of the cycle. The driving patterns can be controlled automatically using the built-in driving programs, so the operator only has to press the start button in the operation room to have the robot carry out the evaluation test. The control data gives drive commands to the robot, and sets the environment and load conditions. As the test progresses, the driving status and data from load cells are recorded.

The bathroom scale is a modern convenience. Even as late as a century ago, a scale was far too large and heavy to be included in the furnishings for a bathroom. The first coin operated scale was brought to the US from Germany in 1885. A few years later, in 1889, the National Scale Company manufactured the first coin operated scale in the United States. It was huge, weighing more than 200 pounds, but the coin operated scale was one of the first automatic vending machines. Drop in a penny, and you got to see your weight.

The idea of a vending machine caught on. During the 1920s and 1930s the Peerless Scale Company coin operated a coin operated scale on almost every corner. In the 1920’s and 30’s, weighing youself was a novelty, and since people always had a penny, even in the middle of the depression, they could always afford to weigh themselves. Back then owning a coin operated scale was a great business. In a good location, a coin operated scale collecting one penny at a time could earn $50 to $100 a month. Even in a poor location, a coint operated scale could bring in $5 a month. Since a scale cost only $50, the profit margin was pretty good.

The popularity of penny scales reached its pinnacle in the mid-1930’s, when there were over 750,000 scales all across the country. As the novelty of the coin operated scale diminished, new gimmicks were designed to revitalize interest. Some scales were designed to give a small ticket with a person’s weight printed on it (so that people could hide their weight from viewers and husbands). Then, fortunes were added to the tickets and before long pictures of movie stars were used to encourage patrons to collect tickets and complete a set. The movie stars paid the coin operated scale companies to feature their pictures in order to promote their names.

In the 1940’s, improvements in mechanical scale technology made the small inexpensive personal bathroom scale readily available, and the popularity of the coil operated scales began to decline.

Today, the personal bathroom scale is more likely to be digital. load cell technology has made the bathroom scale very accurate — even ones small enough to fit in a suitcase for travel. In 2004 a patent was granted for a bathroom scale that mounts into a floor, and that is designed to have tiles or other floor covering materials on top of it. Weight information is transmitted from the bathroom scale to a remote countertop or wall mounted display which may normally show a clock or something else until the bathroom scale is stepped on.

An airbag detonates with more than 1200 lbs of force at speeds up to 230 miles per hour. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that 169 people, including 100 children and at least 26 women, have been killed by airbags in crashes. Even more stunning is that these airbag deaths have occurred in accidents in which serious injuries would otherwise have been unlikely.

On the other hand, NHTSA estimates that 6,138 lives (5,185 drivers and 953 front-right passengers) have been saved by the airbag, and at the same time, children, small adults, and out-of-position passengers in the front seats of cars are at risk of airbag death or airbag injury when the airbag is deployed at full force during an automobile accident. Airbag systems were developed for the 5 ft 8 inch 180 lb. male, and only tested to be sure they met these very specific needs. Airbag safety for others, those who have to sit closer to the steering wheel than 10 or 12 inches, was ignored. Nor did the requirements consider airbag safety children, or those who have medical reasons why they are in danger from the force of an exploding airbag.

As bad as the airbag deaths reported are, when compared to the number of lives saved, it might seem that the benefits outweigh the dangers, but these reported airbag deaths are not really the total. The fact is that we American drivers are being forced to have a dangerous technology in our automotiles, and we are being lied to about the severity of the airbag danger. The number of airbag deaths reported by NHTSA only has included accidents investigated by their Special Crash Investigation (SCI) Division. As of 1988, the SCI decided to focus only on investigating accidents that included the latest airbag technology, because their primary purpose is to help facilitate airbag safety by helping auto manufacturers develop safer and better airbags. But whenever statistics on airbag deaths are quoted, those numbers are used as if the SCI investigated deaths are the only deaths from airbags. But the bulk of the airbag deaths are not investigated because they don’t involve the latest technology. Therefore there are far more airbag deaths than are quoted in the official statistics published by NHTSA. This holds true with airbag injuries as well: very few airbag injuries are ever investigated or counted.

The good news is that NHTSA recently set up a new standard to make the airbag itself safer by requiring new tests for airbag safety that take into account children in the front seat and small adults, as well as drivers and front-seat passengers. The new airbag safety tests will be phased in over the next several years. The approach being taken by airbag manufacturers is to utilize a system of load cells that detect the weight and position of the passenger. This information is used to calculate the appropriate airbag force for children, small adults, and out of position passengers. Unfortunately, a solution for airbag safety we can depend on is not due until 2012.

The Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Louisville and the Kentucky medical Examiner’s Office are conducting an on-going 10 year study to identify and describe injuries associated with airbag deployment. Their study shows that in addition to the well known dangers to children and small adults, any occupant in close proximity to a deploying airbag can sustain severe injuries such as amputation of fingers, hands and forearms, pulverized compound fractures of the forearms, fractures of the upper arms,and even death. These injuries and possible death can occur no matter what the speed of the vehicle is, and they occur not only from the rapid forceful deploment of the bag itself, but from the rigid airbag cover which splits open, or sometimes just blows off (at speeds up to 200 miles per hour) when the bag deploys.

If injuries associated with airbags and the module cover are to be prevented, or at least ameliorated, then the upper body, arms, face, and hands must not be in proximity to the cover at the time of airbag deployment. This may not be possible if the driver’s height necessitates a full forward position of the car seat, or when his or her hands are touching the airbag module such as when honking the horn or setting the cruise control on the car. Forearms may be in front of the airbag module cover while turning the steering wheel.

Automobile manufacturers are investigating ways to reduce the injuries from airbags by using load cells to sense a passenger’s weight and position. Unfortunately, these remedies will not be fully available in automobiles until 2012. Until then It may be possible to reduce the risk by changing our driving habits.

Unless you have turned off your airbag, your should take the following precautions:

1. When driving your car, grip the car steering wheel at the sides or bottom. Keep hands, thumbs, fingers, and arms off of the hub of the steering wheel. This will make it more likely that your hands and arms will be below the airbag should it deploy.
2. When turning the steering wheel do not your arm in front of the airbag cover.
3. Do not blow your car’s horn at the onset of an accident.
4. Passengers keep hands, fingers, thumbs or arms off of the dashboard near the plastic airbag module cover. In case of an accident, never brace yourself with your hands and arms on the dashboard of your car.
5. Push the car seat, either driver or passenger, back as far as possible. The driver needs to keep at least 10 inches (according to the government) back from the airbag and horn cover (12 inches according to other experts). Pedal extenders can help a driver reach the pedals if driving with an extended toe is uncomfortable, but in many cases, seeing the road is impossible when a shorter driver’s seat is moved back.
6. Tilt the passenger seat may also be back slightly.
7. Children and frail passengers should always be in the back seat, properly restrained by a seatbelt or car seat. If this is not possible, a passenger side air bag on/off switch may be installed to shut off the front seat passenger side air bag.
8. Never place a rear facing infant car seat in the front seat with the infant’s head toward an active dashboard air bag.
9. If you fall into one of the governments at-risk-from-airbag groups, you can install an airbag switch.
10. Use your seatbelt. Ironically, seatbelts are the best protection from airbag injury since they will prevent you from being thrown forward which will put you too close to the airbag as it detonates (at 200 mph and with about 2000 lbs of force).

If your automobile impacts something, often, even if the impact is very light, the airbag detonates with more than 1200 lbs of force at speeds that can exceed 200 mph. This data has been obtained from extensive testing with sophisticated load cell technology. We hear about the results of the deployment of airbags from hospital emergency rooms, from individuals who have been injured, from private companies who work in the automobile safety industry, from automobile manufacturers, and even from the government. Even with such a large group, all saying that airbags are dangerous, the public does not have available to it accurate statistics on airbag injuries and deaths. The number of airbag deaths reported by the National Highway Traffice Safety Administration is far lower than the actual number. The airbag deaths reported are only those from accidents investigated by NHTSA’s Special Crash Investigation Division, and as of 1988 the SCI Division of NHTSA only investigated accidents that included the latest airbag technology. Their justification for this misleading information is that their primary purpose is to help auto manufacturers develop safer airbags. What, you thought the purpose of reporting a death statistic was to inform the public?

Why are airbags so dangerous? To start with, airbag systems were developed for the 5 ft 8 inch 180 lb. male, and they were only tested to be sure they met those specific needs. Unfortunately, this limited airbag testing did not help shorter people, who have to sit closer to the steering wheel than 10 or 12 inches. Nor did the requirements consider children, or those who have medical reasons why they are in danger from the force of an exploding airbag. We can’t totally blame the auto makers either. While the airbag was still in the research and development phase, the automobile industry conducted tests that clearly demonstrated the potential for fatal airbag injuries associated with airbag deployment, and the automobile industry itself concluded that the life-saving airbag could also be life-threatening.

The Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Louisville and the Kentucky Medical Examiner’s Office have been conducting an on-going study for the past 10 years to identify injuries from airbags deployment. Their study has irrefutably indicated that an automobile occupant in close proximity to a deploying airbag can sustain severe airbag injuries such as traumatic amputation of fingers, hands and forearms, pulverized compound fractures of the forearms and fractures of the upper arms,and even death. These airbag injuries and possible death can occur no matter what the speed of the vehicle is. These airbag injuries occur not only from the rapid forceful deploment of the airbag itself, but from the rigid airbag cover which splits open, or sometimes just blows off when the airbag deploys.

The automobile driver’s side airbag module is located within the center of the automobile steering wheel and is covered by some sort of rigid material–thermoplastic, rigid urethane foam covered with polyvinyl or rigid metal plates covered with foam and vinyl. At the moment of deployment the cover splits along seams intentionally weakened in manufacture and rapidly opens outward to allow the airbag to inflate, averaging between 144 mph and 211 mph.

A survey of 184 automobiles in the model year 1999 revealed that 85% have the horn activation button located in the airbag module cover. Drivers often place their hand on the horn right before an accident, exactly the most dangerous location if their airbag deploys! Passengers have also sustained very severe airbag injuries when they attempted to brace themselves by placing their hand on the dashboard. Today, no warning labels inform the driver or passenger of these risks of airbag injuries from placing hands or forearms on driver or passenger side air bag module covers. As long ago as 1972, Ford Motor Company recommended a warning placard be affixed to the crash pad directly in front of the right front passenger to warn of hazards associated with the airbag.

So far, the airbag systems developed over the last few years have made progress, with the multistage airbag and load cells that sense occupant weight and position. In September 2003 the first systems were introduced that turn off the airbag based on both occupant weight and position. But there is still a long way to go.

Trading recipes is a lot of fun. In fact, the number one complaint of home cooks is that they followed a recipe, but it didn’t turn out. The number one reason this happens is that although they used the same number of cups of each ingredient as the recipe author, they actually used a very different amount.

Yeast is a good example. Getting the amount of yeast wrong a little can affect the rising time, which is annoying, but not the end of the world. Getting yeast significantly wrong in either direction makes a mess.

Salt is another example. Kosher salt takes up twice the volume of regular salt, and so it’s easy to put in double, or half the amount needed if you use the wrong kind. And what about cutting or chopping? “One cup chopped onions” isn’t really a whole lot more informative than “one medium onion, chopped.” How finely chopped? How tightly packed? “200g of chopped onion,” is a much more reliable description.

What if you don’t regularly cook with parsnips and a recipe calls for “three medium or two large parsnips”? At the grocery you see parsnips, all about the same size. Are they are small, medium, or large? Unfamiliarity with the ingredient isn’t a problem with flour–every cook has used flour, but the amount of flour in a cup can vary as much as 25% depending on how it is packed. Sifting before or after measuring can make the difference even greater. How carefully is the flour is leveled in the cup? Even the brand of flour can make a difference.

All of these problems are a result of calling out ingredients by volume instead of by weight. Using a kitchen scale to determine the amount of ingredients is a far more accurate method of following a recipe, and weighing is usually easier and less messy than scooping and leveling ingredients.

Digital scales are the newest form of kitchen scales. A good digital scale provides easy to read measurements with high precision, and as with all things digital, digital scale prices continue to fall: entry-level models are selling for as low as $30. Digital scales work based on an electrical component called a load cell. The resistance of the load cell changes based upon the compression or change in shape of the component, and a simple computer in the digital scale calculates the weight of a load by the change in resistance. Better digital scales update their readings almost instantaneously. This means, if you’re pouring sugar into a bowl, the scale will provide real time feedback so you don’t pour too much.

Obviously, using weight instead of volumes (which can be a bit vague) in your recipes is the way to solve the frustration cooks have with recipes. But, in the US, recipe books are almost always in terms of volume. So, if you want to share a recipe, and be sure that the results your friend gets matches yours, give it to her with ingredients specified by weight. Here’s how to do that:

First gather each of the ingredients, leaving them in their storage containers. Before you start cooking, weigh each container. Don’t worry about weighing the empty container first; just weigh the whole container and its contents and record the weights. Next actually cook your dish–it’s important to verify the results, right? Once you have finished cooking weigh each of the ingredient storage containers again (the weights should be less, since you used some up). Now, subtract the after-cooking weight of each container from the before-cooking weight to determine how much of the ingredient you used. For example, suppose that before you started your flour storage container weighed 5lbs 2oz (=82oz) and afterwards it weighed 3lbs 14oz (=62oz). This means that you used 20oz, or 1 lb 4 oz of flour.

What if the recipient of your recipe doesn’t have a kitchen scale? Just explain that having a kitchen scale will solve almost all of the frustrations in her life. Loan her yours for a couple of days, and she’ll be a kitchen scale convert.

Elephants are big and heavy. Just how big and heavy is that? The largest elephant on record was an adult male African elephant that weighed about 24,000 pounds and was 13 feet tall at the shoulder! African elephants grow larger than Asian elephants. African elephants are the largest land animals with body growth continuing for up to 30 years. Bulls (males) may reach a height of 9-13 feet at the shoulder and weigh between 9,000-13,000 pounds. Cows (females) are smaller in size, averaging 7-9 feet at the shoulder and weighing between 4,500-7,000 pounds. An adult elephant will be almost as tall as it is long. The ears alone can measure nearly 6 feet high and 4 feet wide and weigh almost 100 pounds. These numbers apply to elephants who are well cared for in a zoo or circus. Insufficient food and drinking water and a lack of medical care mean that Wild elephants usually weigh less and are not as tall.

Baby elephants aren’t lightweights. New-born elephant weight is from around 170 pounds to 248 pounds. Even so, a baby female elephant weight is only about 4% of her adult weight, and a baby male elephant weight is only about 2% of his adult weight.

Even an elephant’s teeth are heavy. Elephants have 1 upper and 1 lower molar on each side of their mouth. Each molar can weigh about 5 pounds and is the size of a brick. Elephant tusks are really just elongated incisor teeth which have about one-third of their total length hidden inside the skull. Both males and female African elephants have tusks, while only male Asian elephants have tusks. Elephant tusks grow throughout life, so the older the elephant the larger the tusk The largest elephant tusk ever recorded weighed 214 pounds and was 138 inches long. An elephant tusk of this size is not found on elephants today, because over the years hunters and poachers have taken animals with the largest tusks. Since elephant tusk size is an inherited characteristic, it is rare to find one now that weighs more than 100 pounds.

One way to find out elephant weight is by using a formula. First you have to measure the elephant around her body just behind her front legs. Then measure her length, then the circumference of one of her footpads. Take these measurements in centimeters and enter them into the following formula

(11.5 * heart girth) + (7.55 * length) + (12.5 * pad circumference) - 4016 = elephant weight in kilograms

A more accurate way to get the elephant weight is to put it on a scale. Of course, not many people, even if they own elephants, have a scale that is large enough. There are portable truck scales (acually they weigh trucks and anything else that will fit on them) that have 6 to 12 load cells or more depending on the length of the scale. When the San Diego Zoo wants to weigh their elephants, the California Highway Patrol brings in their portable truck scales and the elephants stand on them.