WIKA has been an internationally recognised partner for all measurement tasks for most decades. The product portfolio includes pressure, temperature, force and level measurement, and flow measurement, calibration and SF6 gas solutions. In the following article, we would like to have a closer consider the measured variable of force. These five reasons show why force measurement is of particular importance.
Reason 1: Protection of people and machinery
Protecting folks from harm is the highest priority in virtually any workplace. Likewise, the machinery should remain undamaged as a way 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, alternatively, uncontrolled machine movements are prevented. This can help you work safely, and completely harmlessly, next to sufficient reason for machinery. In production lines, for instance, the machinery is prevented from pulling, pushing or pressing unchecked, and thereby destroying both components and itself. Another example is port logistics, that WIKA offers a globally unique, certified system.
Added value: Safe working environment
Reason 2: Ensuring system stability and production safety
Just collecting data isn’t enough. The right measured values are also required to have the ability 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. A crucial point here is to reduce running costs. The higher the quality of the measured data, the higher the data analysis. The look 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 therefore the maximisation of profit, have been completely mentioned in the last section. Only through the optimal usage of materials and machinery can margins be increased. An integral issue in manufacturing plants is machine availability. As well as 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 by using tension/compression force transducers. In this manner, optimum quality is permanently guaranteed and, simultaneously, wear is minimised. Higher profits can be achieved through saving time, for example, when containers are weighed ?on the fly?.
Added value: Maximum profits
Reason 4: Improving product quality and saving materials
Using force measurement in welding tongs ? as explained in the section above ? is an extremely good example of improving product quality along with saving materials. Force measurement provides the right data for the most accurate process control. Therefore, machine tool wear is minimal. In addition, force measurement offers a great many other areas of application. For instance, spreading fertiliser where this step is adapted to the soil conditions is one way to save material. This also protects the surroundings. Furthermore, it is advantageous 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 could be reduced. In this instance, loads can be lifted further, yet accidents, e.g. because of slipping or tipping, can be avoided.
Added value: Lowering costs
Reason 5: Ensuring quality
Finally, the utilization of force measurement also offers many advantages in your community of quality assurance, which includes recently been touched upon. On the one hand, the machinery can be optimally controlled by registering the force. However, by recording the values, live along with saving them for later use, conclusions could be drawn for specific batches. Furthermore, probably the most precise force measuring instruments meet up with the highest requirements, for instance, in materials testing machinery or in medical engineering. Incidentally, WIKA offers a DAkkS-accredited calibration service for force measuring instruments.
Added Unsurpassed : Exact measured values
Note
Further details on our portfolio of force measuring instruments are available on the WIKA website. There additionally, you will find information on our calibration service for force measuring instruments. Furthermore, our brochure on force measurement: ?Force measurement is a matter of trust? can be available. Would Cripple like to buy force transducers? Inside our WIKA online shop you?ll find some of our standard versions. Assuming you have any questions about force measurement, please ask your contact person.
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