Load cell amplifiers are devices that are able to increase signal strength for signals that come from a load cell. The load cell sometimes produces feeble signals that are of low strength that end up not being able to work with some of the measuring system’s components such as a load meter or a data logger for load cells.
This problem is solved by load cell amplifiers as they are able to take the signal and amplify it, resulting in the output signal being of much higher strength. A load cell amplifier is present in the majority of signal conditioning modules or can also work as a device on its own.
How do Load Cell Amplifiers work?
A load cell produces signals that are mostly in millivolts, with a load cell amplifier converting that signal into more powerful ones such as 4.20mA, RS232, USB, 0-10 VDC and RS485. Additional power will be required by a load cell amplifier.
One of the more notable aspects of this is that the amplification of the signal does not change the core data, and thus does not create any errors within the measured value. Signal conditioning is the term given to making changes to or converting the signal. There are a wide array of other signal conditional methods such as linearization, filtering and more in addition to just amplification.
The selection of hardware augment types is dependent on the project requirements.
Load cell calibration is dependent on the particular load cell to be used and in most cases calibration will have already been performed by the manufacturer.
