Challenge
The Institute of Spring Technology, based in Sheffield, are world renowned as the leaders in spring measurements. Amongst many services they also sell high precision spring test machines which allow manufacturers and test houses to accurately categorise the behaviour of springs from very small to very large depending upon the intended application.
Their existing product has remained largely unchanged for more than 10 years but as new technology has become available it is possible to improve the measurement accuracy further and also reduce the manufactured cost of the electronics massively. Another major improvement was the move from a parallel port interface which is no longer available on mainstream PC’s to high speed USB which makes porting their software to more modern PC’s so much easier.
Solution
Arrow Technical took a ground up design approach to optimise the original design and using modern microcontrollers and digital electronics were able to provide a new design which measures force sensors with 20-bit resolution at up to 2.5KHz which is no mean achievement and keeps IST’s test equipment ahead of any competitors in the field which is where they always position themselves.
For more information about IST, their products & services please visit their website at http://www.ist.org.uk
