Measure and track the forces of your equipment. Also known as load cells, these sensors convert tension and compression forces into electrical signals. When connected to a computer or programmable logic controller (PLC), they monitor, document, or trigger actions in your machinery.

Choosing Your Sensor

When choosing a sensor consider whether you’ll be measuring tension, compression, or both; what shape would fit your application best; and how you’ll mount them. Select sensors with a capacity rating higher than the greatest load you expect them to receive. To protect from unexpected overload, they’re designed to briefly handle forces 1.5 times greater than their load capacity.

Threaded hole and threaded through-hole sensors are commonly used for weighing items in packaging machine bins, conveyors, and chutes. Use two or more to accurately measure uneven loads. Round with threaded through-hole sensors can be bolted to surfaces and have a low profile for applications with limited clearance. They're commonly used to measure clamping forces.

Button sensors are disc shaped with a low profile for applications with limited clearance. They are often used for weight sensing in packaging machinery and for pressure sensing in medical device prototypes.

Threaded standoff sensors have a threaded hole to connect to eye bolts, rod ends, or threaded rods. They’re commonly mounted upside-down between a tank and a leveling mount to weigh material in small tanks or silos. Dual-sided threaded standoff sensors have threaded holes on opposite sides so you can attach them between two components, such as a hanging scale and its load.

Threaded stud sensors screw into equipment. Dual-sided threaded stud sensors can be used to monitor push-pull forces, such as in testing the durability of a folding car seat over many repetitions.

S-shaped sensors are also known as S-beam load cells. Their distinct shape makes them a common choice for monitoring and testing tension in wires, cords, ropes, and harnesses.

Optional data-recording software tracks and records data from up to four sensors at once. Use USB hubs to connect up to four sensors to your computer.

Choosing Your Sensor Setup

Kits include everything you need to relay data from sensors to computers, PLCs, or both.

Link sensors to a computer or tablet via USB cord with PC connection kits. The included software plots and analyzes measurements, letting you track high, low, and average values over time. The software can set off connected alarms or notify you by email or text message when measurements fall outside a certain range. Data can also be exported to Microsoft Excel or other analytical software such as MATLAB and LabVIEW.

Send signals from sensors to your programmable logic controller with PLC connection kits. PLCs convert the sensor's signal to trigger actions in your system, such as diverting items on a conveyor that exceed a certain weight.

Choose PLC/PC connection kits to use the tracking and notification features of the PC software and the trigger functions of a PLC simultaneously.