WIKA has been an internationally recognised partner for several measurement tasks for most decades. The merchandise portfolio includes pressure, temperature, force and level measurement, and also flow measurement, calibration and SF6 gas solutions. In the next article, we wish to take a closer look at the measured variable of force. These five reasons show why force measurement is of particular importance.
Reason 1: Protection of people and machinery
Protecting people from harm may be the highest priority in any workplace. Likewise, the machinery should remain undamaged in order to minimise downtime and repairs. In this context, force measurement ensures a safe working environment, especially through overload protection. In cranes, for instance, this prevents heavy loads from falling. With construction machinery and robots, on the other hand, uncontrolled machine movements are prevented. This can help you work safely, and completely harmlessly, close to and with machinery. In production lines, for example, the machinery is prevented from pulling, pushing or pressing unchecked, and thereby destroying both components and itself. Another example is port logistics, that WIKA supplies a globally unique, certified system.
Added value: Safe working environment
Reason 2: Ensuring system stability and production safety
Just collecting data is not enough. The right measured values are also required to be able to monitor processes seamlessly. Using force measurement in linear drives, for example, thus improves process control and automation, while simultaneously ensuring quality. Force measurement also provides the right data for the right functioning of brakes and drives, conveyors, presses and weighing systems. An essential point here is to lessen running costs. The bigger the quality of the measured data, the better the data analysis. The planning of a tool change is thus more precise, so that changing it too early doesn?t cause increased costs nor does unplanned maintenance cause longer downtimes. The savings in consequential costs alone shell out the dough many times over.
Added value: Full process control
Reason 3: Optimisation of production conditions
The savings potential, and thus the maximisation of profit, have been mentioned in the last section. Only through the perfect use of materials and machinery can margins be increased. A key issue in manufacturing plants is machine availability. Besides reducing downtime, the focus is on minimising maintenance costs. Among this are welding tongs. With these, the contact force of the electrodes can be precisely monitored through the use of tension/compression force transducers. In this way, optimum quality is permanently guaranteed and, simultaneously, wear is minimised. Higher profits can even be achieved through saving time, for instance, when containers are weighed ?on the fly?.
Added value: Maximum profits
Reason 4: Improving product quality and saving materials
The usage of force measurement in welding tongs ? as explained in the section above ? is a very good exemplory case of improving product quality along with saving materials. Force measurement supplies the right data for probably the most accurate process control. Because of this, machine tool wear is minimal. In addition, force measurement offers many other areas of application. For example, spreading fertiliser where this step is adapted to the soil conditions is one method to save material. Miracle protects the surroundings. Furthermore, it is beneficial to know the (supporting) forces functioning on mobile cranes. The vehicle?s centre of gravity can thus be calculated exactly, which means that the safety margin can be reduced. In cases like this, loads could be lifted further, yet accidents, e.g. due to slipping or tipping, can be avoided.
Added value: Lowering costs
Reason 5: Ensuring quality
Finally, using force measurement offers many advantages in your community of quality assurance, which includes recently been touched upon. On the main one hand, the machinery can be optimally controlled by registering the force. On the other hand, by recording the values, live in addition to saving them for later use, conclusions can be drawn for specific batches. In addition, the most precise force measuring instruments meet the highest requirements, for instance, in materials testing machinery or in medical engineering. Incidentally, WIKA also offers a DAkkS-accredited calibration service for force measuring instruments.
Added value: Exact measured values
Note
Further information on our portfolio of force measuring instruments are available on the WIKA website. There you will also find info on our calibration service for force measuring instruments. In addition, our brochure on force measurement: ?Force measurement is really a matter of trust? can be available. Do you want to buy force transducers? In our WIKA online shop you?ll find a few of our standard versions. In case you have any questions about force measurement, please ask your contact person.
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The ELMS1 overload protection saves lives
Force measurement in linear drives