Articles

December 15, 2015
Strain Gages Can’t Measure Stress . . . or Can They?
Practically every mechanical engineer knows that when properly installed, strain gages provide information that helps determine surface strains. Many are also familiar with the calculating power of...
December 7, 2015
What is common between cantilever structures, Galileo Galilei and strain gages?
Examples of cantilever structures can be found all around us. These structures are simple, relatively efficient, and easy to analyze. Houses, bridges, airplanes, traffic lights, anything which needs...
November 9, 2015
Polymeric Materials – in a word, Plastics (Part 1 of 6)
Audiences laughed when Benjamin Braddock received a one-word bit of poolside wisdom — «Plastics» — in The Graduate, but in retrospect that advice seems prescient.  Since...
November 3, 2015
Validating Finite Element Models Using Experimental Methods
In many cases, a product design may start with lines on a napkin and eventually reach a CAD workstation for solid modeling. From there it becomes part of a virtual assembly where it is studied for...
October 23, 2015
Measuring Service Loads Applied to a Part
Knowing service loads is critical for improving existing designs — reducing weight and costs and increasing performance — and for proving that new designs meet specifications. The use of...
October 6, 2015
She has a Need for Speed
During the day Natalie Lahti-Schampers is a test and development engineer at a fire truck manufacturer. On weekends, she is a buggy racer.  Recently Natalie and her husband Jason attended a...
September 3, 2015
Make Sure that Patch is Reliable
Aircraft, both commercial and military fleets, see decades of service. The stress and strain from thousands of take-offs and landings, as well as in-flight turbulence, all contribute to component...
August 18, 2015
The Platinum Standard
Since 1999, Micro-Measurements has been manufacturing strain gages with the sensing foil made of 92% platinum / 8% tungsten. This unique strain gage series offers a strain sensitivity (gage factor)...
August 3, 2015
The Law of Unintended Consequences: or, What is Thermal Output?
From earliest human contemplative thought sprang social concepts and ideals; a fact which may suggest the popularity of social media today. Robert K. Merton followed this tradition. In his 1936...
July 27, 2015
High-Elongation Strain Measurement
Bonded, rolled foil strain gages have the ability to make measurements at very high strains. Properly installed and wired polyimide-backed gages (Micro-Measurements EA-Series) in larger gage lengths...