Quote:
Originally Posted by Amail
I'd go with strain-gaged washers. Here's a link to Transducer Techniques, but there are others out there as well - LWO Series Load Cell @ Transducer Techniques
It will cost you 8 x $725 per container, but you can verify at any time the tension in each bolt, even long after it's left your facility. That may offer you some compliance benefit, or at the very least give you a competitive advantage. You could probably negotiate quantity discounts, and any loadcell manufacturer is more than happy to engineer a custom solution from custom materials, Inconel 718 for instance. |
Interesting idea, but it would be very difficult for us and would cost a fortune. We would not have an easy way to connect the transducers to any sort of unit to read the loads. We'd have to:
1. Route wiring from the base unit outside the cell through a penetration and into the cell (through 40" of high-density concrete with air dams and fire stop material)
2. Install a new target into the cell with the transducers in place
3. Install target, install bolts and then connect transducers to penetration cabling
4. Torque bolts (this part would work great)
5. Cut the cables to the transducers and abandon them in place
then...during target removal, we'd have to throw what's left of the transducers away (any non-metallic material like wire insulation is going to be a brittle, crumbly mess) and start over by installing new transducers with next target.