New technique for dynamic calibration of a force transducer using a drop ball tester

Abstract

A method to calibrate a force transducer under dynamic conditions has been developed. Calibration is achieved by a drop ball test based on the levitation mass method using an optical interferometer. From the conducted experiments, the output of the force transducer could be corrected, in line with the previous paper written by the authors. Moreover, the dynamic correction coefficient could be obtained by this method, even without an expensive air slider, which was used in our previous method. The calibration performed by the developed method proved to be very significant in correcting the dynamic force measurement error by the force transducer with a very small root mean square (RMS) error compared to the results of measurement in the absence of calibration and dynamic correction. The RMS error of measurement result by the force transducer with dynamic calibration and dynamic correction using the developed method is about 1.6 N. This error is equivalent to 1% of the maximum force applied to the force transducer, which is approximately 160 N.