Errors in force measurement are fundamentally different to weighing; the differences are created by a departure from near perfect load application geometry, environmental and load stability. Therefore, the normal weighing industry practices with respect to error type significance do not always apply in situations where other types of errors often dominate. This set of engineering sheets sets out to emphasise the significance of a well defined application with an holistic appraisal of the causes of error. Novatech prides itself on product performance, integrity and a philosophy of explaining errors fully rather than conveniently passing over them as negative product features. Error evaluation is an important part of a loadcell application and engineers need to understand errors fully to estimate the uncertainty of their measurements.

The term often used, 'accuracy' is meaningless without qualification and it is often a word used to describe overall measurement uncertainty. This is determined by a combination of errors but must be related to a quantity to take on any real value e.g. 0.1% rated load, 0.1% measured load and 0.1% rated load over the upper quartile of load rating all describe a quantity.

The engineering sheets are structured to assist engineers in error evaluation; all definitions and equations given are the same as we use to calculate our data sheet performance specifications. You may freely copy and distributed these engineering sheets on error evaluation providing you do not edit the contents.

Additional information can be found in the product specific engineering sheets that are available for some of our loadcells. These can be accessed from the product data sheets.The specification values for a specific loadcell can be found in the appropriate product data-sheet. Printed versions of this information can be supplied by our sales department.