Calibration of quartz load cells; An in-situ procedure for instrumented falling weight impact machines

Quartz load cells have particular problems concerning signal drift and time of load application during calibration. There is currently no available standard method for dealing with these problems. A procedure is suggested that may be used as a routine check in situ on the complete system of quartz cell, amplifier, recording device and data processing unit. It involves loading and unloading a quartz cell with a known mass, recording the output on a suitable storage device and manipulating the data with a computer program to provide a permanent record. The accuracy of the method is considered and the results of a comprehensive series of calibrations in tension and compression are reported.

It was found that, providing good axiality was obtained, then either tensile or compressive loading gave the same calibration. The preferred method was to apply a tensile load, via a hanger system on the end of the striker, which obviates any necessity to remove the load cell from the impact mass and avoids possible errors associated with non-axial loading. Using the procedure, the quartz load cell was calibrated to an accuracy of better than 0·1%.