strain gauges

[SummitDawg]

It's been 14 years since I did this last time in a lab excercise at the university...

What do I need to get set up for strain guage measurements? I remember the concept behind strain gauge instrumentation and how it works, but have no idea how to go about getting all the stuff. My degree is in Mechanical Engineering, so all I got in college was a quick primer and a lab project.

I'm on a project now that should have some strain gauge instumentation done to qualify the design. What basic hardware and/or software is required, and what would a budgetary figure be for minimum entry-level instumentation?

In house, our company does have a good electronics tech, and he also did strain guage instrumentation long ago in a previous college life, but it's been about 20 years for him.

Mostly just looking for a refresher and a list of what I would need and cost to get in to strain guage instrumention. If we had this capability, we have a lot more applications where we could use it.

 

[Skogsgurra]

I googled "strain gauge" and got some useful sites. Both tutorials and people who would be happy to suppy you with strain gauge elements, glue, instrumentation, know-how and evaluation systems.

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

 

[ibrahimucak]

http://www.vishay.com

is a useful site. You can find both information about instrumentation and how to apply strain gages. For the case you need to purchase an application kit containing the necessary surface preparation and bonding accessories. I think you are going to apply quarter bridge so for the hardware be sure that the data acquisition system supports quarter bridge configuration, otherwise you need to complete your quarter bridge manually.

Ibrahim

 

[waross]

Try omega.com for both information and hardware. They have a lot of information available as free literature, CDs and/or downloads.
Try these links and scroll down to the downloads on strain gages.

http://www.omega.com/literature/domestic.html

http://www.omega.com/techref/

respectfully

 

[EdDanzer]

Vishay is a good source for information, and will provide dealer information.

http://www.maxim-ic.com/appnotes.cfm/appnote_number/3396

will provide some driving information.

http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_1/chpt_9/7.html

will provide circuit information.
As to bonding, you might want to look for a local company that repairs electronic scales. Some strain gauge installations require special equipment and treatments. I have found a place in Seattle Washington to do my work.