Wide range of strain gauges available from Durham Instruments

Strain gauges are essential devices used to measure the strain of an object. They feature an insulating flexible backing that supports a metallic foil pattern, which is attached to the object to be measured. As the object is deformed, the foil is deformed, causing its electrical resistance to change. This change, usually measured using a Wheatstone bridge, is used to calculate the gauge factor.

Durham Instruments carries a wide range of strain gauges — from low cost strain gauges suitable for structural strain measurement in civil engineering laboratories and other general purpose applications, to optical strain gauges made from fibres of glass with a very small core diameter.

Its lineup of strain gauges includes:

• Showa Strain Gauges: These gauges are made with a metallic foil film in the thickness of a few microns that is glued on a thin electrically insulated sheet. This foil film is cut down by a photo-etching method in the shape of strain gauges. These photo-etched strain gauge patterns are trimmed to have a standard resistance value satisfying requirements as the strain gauges. The gauges are available with two different backing materials — the polyester FA series and the polyimide MA Series. 
• HBM’s K-OL Optical Strain Gauge: HBM's measurement technology enables the simultaneous acquisition of data using both electrical and optical strain gauges. The EasyOptics module in its catmanAP software enables users to jointly acquire and analyze data from different types of sensors. Its optical strain gauge is made from fibres of glass with a very small core diameter of no more than five micrometres. The fibre core is surrounded by a cladding layer from purest glass with a diameter of 125 micrometres. K-OL strain gauges have many advantages. They are insensitive to electromagnetic fields; can potentially be used in highly explosive atmospheres; suffer no mechanical failure of sensor material under high vibration loads; and have a reduced number of connection lines, which means less impact on test objectives. 

There are many more strain gauges available from Durham Instruments. These gauges, besides measuring tension, can also be used to measure load, pressure, torsion and shear strain. 

To learn more, contact Durham Instruments. 

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