A Load Cell and Its Applications

A load cell is a transducer. It's a mechanical electricalshould be calibrated properly to show actual force or
component used in various industries. Application fieldweight applied.
varies from personal health care to large scale /The load cell has found various applications:-
heavy scale manufacturing industries. It is also used in
automation and security systems.1. Security system.
When ever the load is applied the sensing element2. Weighing scales.
changes its shape depending upon the stress, tension3. Personal scales.
or compression developed. There are various types4. Defence Industry.
like capacitance or strain gauge based.5. Laboratory weighing equipments.
In modern market strain gauge based load cells are6. Pharma Industries.
widely used.The working depends upon Wheatstones'7. Industrial Automation.
bridge circuit. This circuit when invented didn't use8. Tank or Silo weighing.
strain gauge. When under load, force or pressure the9. Pressure sensing of fluids.
resistance in strain gauges change and also the flow10. Material testing.
of current. So we can conclude that load or force11. Construction Industry to test the strength of
applied is converted into change in resistance andpillars and base of the building and many more
thus it is called as transducer. The change inendless applications.
resistance is directly proportional to the applied forceCapacitance based cells are also available but are bit
or load or pressure. To make the physical force orcomplicated to manufacture. Strain gauges are easily
load human readable we need electronic circuitavailable from manufacturers and are also cheaper
system which is calibrated to show equivalent currentthan capacitance sensors, so nowadays strain gauge
change to load proportion. The electronic circuitbased cells are widely used.