Vishay Strain Gauging Seminar

I went to the Vishay Micro-Measurements Strain Gauging Seminar last summer in San Francisco, California. We use strain gauges quite a bit in the labs that I work in. We make load cells with them, conduct experimentation, find Young’s Modulus among other various uses. In the seminar we learned how to properly apply strain gauges and they have interesting activities and ideas for laboratory demonstrations. One of them listed above is strain gauging a pop can to calculate how much pressure is in the can. They do this by measuring the change in strain when the can is opened. The pressure is always constant even if you shake it, I guess that ruins the surprise to all the people that go to these things.

We also made a half bridge load cell. The load cell was then clamped to a table and you can measure how much weight that you hang off the end. It is a pretty interesting activity. It was a good course to learn various applications and uses for strain gauges in a teaching laboratory. In our labs we use them on torsion specimens, .505, etc. We went over using heat cured epoxy also which we don’t do a lot of in our labs since some of specimens are too large to fit into any oven. It was a very informative conference.

I ended up staying in San Francisco over the weekend to do some exploring after the conference. I took a cruise tour under the Golden Gate Bridge.

I swear we circled Alcatraz three times.

Here is me in Chinatown. I went all over, to the Cable Car Museum, Fisherman’s Warf, Trolleys, and visit a few friends while I was there.