Strain-Gauge Display for Use in Harsh Environments

Mantracourt's PSD portable strain-gauge display is suitable for a range of industrial applications where load, pressure, force or weight measurement data needs to be accurately recorded. Enabled for automatic sensor calibration and incorporating a waterproof enclosure, a long battery life and a sister handheld device for RS232 output, the PSD strain-gauge indicator can be used as a strain-gauge indicator or a loadcell indicator. Kelly Voysey of Mantracourt said: '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 loadcell data in industrial and architectural environments.

'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,' she added. Mantracourt specialises in the design and manufacture of electronics for measurement technologies including strain-gauge, temperature, pressure, voltage, current, potentiometer, rate, flow, LVDT and displacement systems in either analogue, digital or wireless form. 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 can hold the calibration details of the associated shackle. Using a TEDS-enabled PSD loadcell display, an operative can connect the PSD to each shackle through a five-pin Binder socket and the mating connector supplied. Once connected, the load can be read by the PSD using the simple peak/valley hold or gross/net keyboard functions. As calibration is not required, the handheld device does not need to be informed as to what shackle it is currently measuring, preventing mix-ups from 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 a data logger, 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. Features of the PSD include: a weight of just 250g; waterproof, IP65, battery-powered operation; a seven-digit LCD display, with battery, peak, trough, net, overload and shunt cal indication; a battery life of 450 hours in power-save mode; a tactile keyboard with on/off, range select, peak/valley hold and gross/net controls; a dual range for values such as kilograms and pounds; and an option for display with an RS232 output option.

The strain-gauge display is microprocessor based, enabling a single-pass calibration facility (direct mV/V). In addition, it is TEDS enabled for automatic sensor calibration (IEEE1451 - template 33).

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