Strain Gage Installation Checklist: Glass

Our new glass checklist helps to ensure consistency and completeness in carrying out a strain measurement task.

Any stress analyst who has to carry around an enormous amount of knowledge and experience and apply it effectively using a foil strain gage, is prone to make mistakes sometimes. There's only so much we can carry around in our heads about measuring strain without forgetting something. Therefore, we believe the answer to this problem is to use a checklist. The following checklist for testing glass offers 1-8 verification stages but also instill a kind of discipline of higher performance.

One of the oldest ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) committees, Committee C14 on Glass and Glass Products develops test standards for determining the mechanical properties of all types of glasses, including ceramics. ASTM C158 (Standard Test Methods for Strength of Glass by Flexure) provides test methodology for determining the modulus of rupture. The primary challenge using strain gage sensors on glass is surface preparation, which must be done carefully so as not to disturb the glass surface and alter strain readings.

Our checklist for glass was designed to ensure basic checks were always completed before final strain measurement. Please run through the list, and make sure everyone in on the same page about the measurement to be conducted, aware of who else was on the stress analysts’ team, and knows their role in the testing.

Remember that extreme complexity is the rule for almost everyone that deals with stress and strain measurements. Our profession may not involve life-and-death outcomes directly, but we will get the same benefits by using a checklist to organize the test and measurement on a glass.

A simple tool that helps to prevent these mistakes is the checklist. Our new checklist is simply a standardized list of the required steps developed for a repetitive strain measurement task on a glass

Step 1: Define the Test Conditions

Step 2: Ensure Appropriate Surface Preparation Materials Are On Hand

Step 3: Select the Strain Sensor

Step 4: Select the Adhesive

Step 5: Select a Protective Coating

Step 8: Select the Measurement Instrumentation

Strain Gage Installation Checklist: http://www.vishaypg.com/doc?11512

Strain Sensor Reference Guide: http://www.vishaypg.com/doc?25906