Portable single or dual channel load meter

The Synectic Design SY021 Portable Load Meter is a test and measurement load meter, suitable for laboratory or portable use; it also provides data logging facilities

The Synectic Design SY021 Portable Load Meter is a test and measurement load meter, suitable for laboratory or portable use; it also provides data logging facilities.

The SY021 is available with single or dual channels.

The single channel version can display readings from load cells or similar transducers, the readings can be displayed in kilos, Newtons, pounds, tonnes or user programmable units e.g kN etc The dual channel model can simply take readings independently as essentially two single versions, or the channels can work interactively.

The SY021 can operate interactively to produce for example load against displacement charts, where channel one reads a load cell and channel two reads eg an extensometer to provide the displacement or compression of the test piece.

The two channels can operate with a trigger function too, this is if readings of eg load only need to be taken once a test piece reaches a certain or critical temperature.

Once the critical temperature has been reached on the first channel, the second channel (load) starts to take readings.

Standard features on the SY021 include: a dual line 16 digit LCD display; a peak hold (62.5ms) (a faster option is available) or continuous measurement; a full numeric keypad; a battery life of 45 hours and a zipped vinyl case.

The input and output working range of the unit is 0.5mV/V to 4.5mV/V and a pulsed bridge excitation of 5Vdc (to conserve battery life).

The SY021 has previously been used for tension testing carpets to testing soil samples outdoors.

The unit is also used to test the balance of the brake pistons on train brakes; the model used in this case is the dual channel version, where both force readings are displayed together on the dual screen so they can be compared.

The SY021 is being used as a portable field testing unit by civil engineers to measure the strength of soil samples; previously large laboratory testing equipment costing roughly GBP5,000 was used to carry out these tests.

The SY021 is much less expensive, yet equally if not more accurate.

Calibration of the load meter can be carried out by simply applying a known load or by entering a particular load cell's calibration data, essentially its mV/V scale and full scale range.

The unit can hold in non-volatile memory the settings for 100 different load cells etc (100 on the single channel version or 50 per channel on the dual channel version).

Options available with the SY021 include data logging - up to 3kbytes, and ticket printing on demand for a batch of results.

The information printed includes: a programmable 50 character title, a batch reference and the peak values measured for each channel.

A rugged version of the SY021 is available if the unit is to be used in a particularly dirty environment, this version is also available with larger than standard rechargeable batteries.

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