Design optimization, manufacturing, and testing of affordable 3-axis load cell for reliable force plate component

Abstract

3-axis load cell is the most important and expensive component in the force platform, which could be used to measure Ground Reaction Force (GRF) and Center of Pressure (CoP) of human movement. Due 3-axis load cell importance in the force platform, it is necessary to design and produce less expensive 3-axis load cell in order to build more affordable force platform. In the current work, optimization of the commercially available 3-axis load cell was performed in order to make a suitable and less expensive 3-axis load cell for more affordable load platform. Manufacturing and testing of the optimized load cell were also conducted in the present work. The optimization process begins with redesigning process, including determining the optimum dimension and tolerance of the load cell, which directly followed by finite element analysis to obtain the stress distribution of the load cell. Manufacturing and calibration processes were performed right after finding the optimum design, which then followed by testing at individual axis and combined axes. The test results show that the load cell is able to measure force in each axis with acceptable error, which make the current design and process of producing 3-axis load cell may become the reference in the production of less expensive load cells as the main component of the more affordable force platform.