Selecting the measuring range of a force sensor requires comprehensive consideration of maximum force, accuracy requirements, impact load, and safety margin to avoid overload damage or decreased measurement accuracy.
The selection principles are as follows:
Estimate the Maximum Force Value: Clearly define the maximum force that may occur in the application, including the working load and additional forces (such as the weight of the tooling). For example, in insertion/extraction force testing, the insertion/extraction force should be added to the weight of the fixture as the total load.
Allow a Safety Redundancy: To prevent impact or overload, it is recommended that the measuring range be 10%–30% higher than the maximum force value. If dynamic impacts exist (such as stamping or die casting), the sensor should operate within 20%–30% of the measuring range to improve safety.
Balance Measurement Accuracy: For the same sensor model, a smaller measuring range generally results in higher relative accuracy. If the measuring range is too large, the resolution will decrease when measuring small force values, leading to insensitive data. Ideally, the force to be measured should be between 10% and 80% of the selected range.