PRIMARY CALIBRATION SYSTEMS FOR MULTICOMPONENT FORCE, MOMENT AND VIBRATION TRANSDUCERS

In recent decades, there has been a significant rise in the need for mechanical multicomponent transducers, in particular for the measurement of forces, moments and vibrations. These types of devices are commonly employed in various fields, including industrial automation, civil and aerospace engineering, and machine operations and applications in quality and production engineering. However, a specific traceability chain for these types of transducers is still lacking, internationally, along with standardized calibration methods. For this reason, their traceability is becoming increasingly necessary, as well as a current priority, as indicated in the emerging metrology requirements for the future in the strategy documents of the relevant Consultative Committees of BIPM [1,2]. The main problems related to the calibration of these transducers are the simultaneous generation of different components necessary to represent the typical use of these transducers, the costs in developing ad-hoc calibration machines, the large number of tests to get a suitable experimental plan to reach the lowest required uncertainty level and the lack of suitable calibration and uncertainty assessment procedure. At INRiM, multicomponent transducers, systems and methods for their calibration are under development. Such procedures allow to simultaneously evaluate the main and transverse (or cross-talk) sensitivities, thus providing the required metrological traceability, in static and dynamic domains. These systems involve the use of force or vibration primary reference standards integrated with tilted plates. Preliminary experiments showed consistent results. The feasibility of these systems can be exploited in the future to improve the current standards.