Strain Gauge Indicator Proves a Major Success
Mantracourt is celebrating the success of its portable strain gauge display for use as a strain gauge indicator or load cell indicator, (PSD). Developed for a range of industrial customer applications, the PSD is now used by thousands of engineers and technicians around the world.
Enabled for automatic sensor calibration and having a waterproof enclosure, a long battery life and with a sister handheld for RS232 output, the PSD strain gauge indicator is ideal for a broad range of industrial applications where load, pressure, force or weight measurement data needs to be reliably and accurately recorded.
“The PSD strain gauge display has been developed over recent years for use in harsh environments and is also small and light, so it has proven ideal for the collection of strain gauge and load cell data in industrial and architectural environments,” said Kelly Voysey. “There is also a great deal of intelligence that has been developed into the PSD, making it a highly effective and powerful tool for the collection and analysis of this type of data.”
Mantracourt are specialists in the design and manufacture of electronics for measurement technologies including strain gauge, temperature, pressure, voltage, current, potentiometer, rate, flow, LVDT and displacement in either analogue, digital or wireless form.
“Having been in production since 2003, the PSD strain gauge indicator has proven to be a highly effective solution in a broad range of applications,” said Kelly Voysey, Marketing Manager at Mantracourt. “We have sold many thousands worldwide and we expect a similar growth in sales over the next few years. Indeed, it is successful products such as the PSD that helped Mantracourt gain the Queen's Award for Enterprise in International Trade.”
A typical application of the PSD digital display has been the monitoring of the loads on ‘guide wires’, used to maintain the stability of radio masts. Load shackles with built-in TEDS capabilities are used in the guylines. The TEDS shackles have the intelligence to hold the calibration details of the associated shackle. Using a TEDS enabled PSD load cell display, an operative can connect the PSD to each shackle through a 5 pin Binder socket and the mating connector supplied. Once connected, the load can be easily read by the PSD using the simple peak/valley hold
or gross/net keyboard functions. As calibration is not required, the handheld does not need to be informed as to what shackle it is currently measuring which prevents mix-ups occurring when taking readings. Anyone attending the mast can simply take the readings required by connecting and switching on the PSD. Alternatively, using the PSD232, the sister of the PSD, connection to RS232 can be made which will allow users to interface with a PC or datalogger, for example. The PSD232 sends the displayed value to the RS232 port at 9600 baud in an ASCII format, terminated by a carriage return and line-feed.
“The PSD is designed and entirely manufactured at our factory in the UK, “ said Kelly. “This enables us to ensure the quality and provide the very best technical and engineering support for the PSD.”
