Frequently Asked Questions

Don’t panic, contact our helpful and friendly sales order processing team on +44 (0) 118 981 7339.

We accept bank transfer, Visa, Mastercard (debit and credit), unfortunately we do not accept AMEX. If you wish to be put on 30 day credit terms, please let us know when initially ordering. 30 day credit accounts are subject to credit clearance first.

We can provide quotations and invoices in GBP, USD and EUR. The payment currency must match the currency used in the quotation and invoice.

Yes we can provide you with a proforma invoice for payment in advance of shipment, just let us know when you initially place the order.

You will receive your invoice the day of shipping via email to the email address you supplied when you placed the order.

We recommend transducers are re-calibrated on an annual basis to ensure they continue to operate within specification.

Yes we can calibrate transducers and systems provided by other manufacturers.

As standard all our products come with a UKAS traceable calibration certificate. Meaning that all our reference equipment has been inspected, evaluated and calibrated by a UKAS accredited laboratory whose own apparatus is traceable to national or international standards. If a full UKAS certificate is required, we can provide a full UKAS certification through our association with the appropriate UKAS-accredited laboratories, speak to our technical sales team when you initially place the order.

We offer 2 levels of service – 3 working day or 10 working day, for a UKAS traceable calibration. See our calibration services page for more details.

We acknowledge all orders by email to the email address given at the time of ordering. The scheduled delivery date for each item is stated on the order acknowledgement.

A made-to-order system can usually be delivered within 8-10 weeks, as these bespoke systems are made from scratch and do not come from stock.

Our delivery times are stated on the product pages of the website. Stock items are normally next day delivery, please check your order acknowledgement for the exact delivery date.

We use DHL for all shipments UK and DHL or FedEx abroad. You are more than welcome to use your own courier company or collect the goods in person, just let us know when you initially place your order.

We use the standard DHL cover. If you need additional cover and insurance please contact us.

UK mainland and non-mainland, EU and the rest of the World.

Deliveries to UK mainland under 20kgs, by 5.30pm next day, are £18, UK non-mainland add £10. For UK deliveries over 20kg please contact us. Alternatively feel free to use your own courier company to arrange collection of your order. For deliveries to EU and rest of the World please contact our sales team for a quotation. Our prices are DDU and only cover transportation costs. They do NOT include any duties or taxes.

Yes, please let us know when you initially place your order and we will contact you when your goods are ready to collect. Please wait for us to contact you first before booking your courier company to collect.

Yes, please let us know when you initially place your order that you want to collect your order and we will contact you when it is ready to collect. Please wait for us to contact you first so we can make sure everything is ready for when you arrive.

This may be possible on particular products and orders and dependent on our production schedule. If you need an urgent delivery please contact us as soon as possible and we can look into this for you.

Yes, if one of your items is available to ship earlier we can ship it separately from the rest of your order. However, you will be charged 2 separate delivery charges.

The unit will need to be sent in for re-calibration to ensure it provides accurate results and continues to work within specification. Please download and fill in the Gate Force booking in Form and send it in with your device to the address below. As soon as we receive your unit in, we will contact you using the details you provided on the form.

Applied Measurements Ltd
Microtronics Calibration Department
6 Mercury House
Calleva Park
Aldermaston
Berkshire
RG7 8PN.

We offer 2 levels of service – 7 working day and 3 working day from receipt of your gate impact force tester. For Smart Upgrade it’s 14 working days.

Return carriage is included free of charge to UK mainland addresses.

Unfortunately not, we are a calibration house only and can only offer calibration of the gate force testers. Repairs can only be carried out in Italy by the manufacturer Microtronics. You will need to contact the company that supplied you the tester originally to discuss their warranty and repair procedure.

Upgrade Smart PRO delivers the test measurement results via GSM web connectivity directly to any web-connected device. Smart PRO upgrade includes the annual calibration, 1st-year CLOUD subscription and return carriage to the UK mainland. For more information please see our Microtronics Calibration Service Page.

Download and fill in the Gate Force booking in Form and send it in with your device to:

Applied Measurements Ltd
Microtronics Calibration Department
6 Mercury House
Calleva Park
Aldermaston
Berkshire
RG7 8PN

As soon as we receive your unit in, we will contact you using the details you provided on the form.

The easiest way is to pay by Visa or Mastercard (debit and credit), unfortunately we do not accept AMEX. We only charge the card on the day of shipment. If you wish to be put on 30 day credit terms, please let us know when initially ordering by ticking ‘Account’ payment terms box. 30 day credit accounts are subject to credit clearance first which may affect your shipment date.

The Microtronics Fast Thermal Printer (FTP) comes with a 2 year warranty.

The FTP printer gives an immediate hard copy of the test results not the full certification. You will still need to download and print out the full certificate to EN 12445 standards from a PC.

The Upgrade Smart hardware and software upgrade increases the memory capacity of your Microtronics gate impact force tester by 60%, so you can store up to 80 tests!

We provide a 6 month warranty on ALL repairs.

We would need to examine the transducer damage first before we can quote you for a repair.

Zero! We do not charge an initial inspection fee.

We will never carry out any repairs without your prior approval. We will always send you a detailed fault report and quotation for the repair and will only go ahead with the repair if and when you give us your approval. We can also quote you for a new replacement transducer if required.

Yes but please contact us first before sending your unit back.

Print and fill out the RMA form and return it to us with your faulty unit to:

Applied Measurements Ltd
Repairs Department
6 Mercury House
Calleva Park
Aldermaston
Berkshire
RG7 8PN

RMA Form

As soon as we have received your faulty transducer we will contact you using the details you provided on the RMA form.

We offer a full customisation service to match your specific requirement. For more information please read our custom load cell design services page or contact us.

If you are using a strain gauge-based sensor then you can use the DSC-USB digitiser. It is fully USB-powered and comes complete with free software that allows you to monitor live readings and log data in a CSV format at up to 100 readings/second for import directly into your preferred spreadsheet software.

Nowadays the easiest and lowest cost method is to use your existing PC or Laptop in conjunction with a digital interface such as the DSC-USB Strain Gauge Digitiser or modules from the T24 Wireless Telemetry system.

By using our handy, free of charge unit conversion program Convert!

Yes, absolutely. When we manufacture a sensor it will be calibrated using the default set of engineering units defined by the datasheet as the applied measurand (i.e. kilograms, Newtons, bar, Newton-metres, etc.) but you can convert these readings to any other set of compatible engineering units by using our Convert program. We can of course calibrate the sensor in your preferred engineering units before shipment as well, something that we do for our customers all the time.

Yes, we can provide almost every one of our sensors with a fatigue rating for applications where very long life or high frequency cyclic loading will occur. Here is a selection of fatigue-rated load cells that we manufacture regularly.

Applied Measurements use foil strain gauges in almost every single transducer, although occasionally we use semiconductor types as well. We also offer a strain gauge bonding service.

It is possible to re-balance a sensor with a high zero offset. We normally recommend doing this only if the offset does not exceed 25% of the transducer’s rated full scale output. Please contact our technical team for details on how to do this.

Strain gauge sensor resolution is determined by a number of factors, the most significant being the capabilities of the instrumentation to which it is attached and the level of noise (both electrical and mechanical) that exists within the operating environment. As a rough guide, a stable resolution of 1 part in 10,000 is readily achievable in the most industrial applications unless you have vibration present, while in benign environments you can achieve 1 part in 200,000 or more when using high stability versions of the DSC, DCell or DSC-USB signal digitisers.

We recommend that any cable alterations be made before the unit has been calibrated, as the small changes in resistance of the cable can cause errors. Please note, any cable alterations may affect the lead time of the sensor. A maximum of 20m cable length is advisable on any device without sense wires.
If we are not carrying out the cable alteration it is necessary that you use a screened cable for any extension. Any cable alterations may effect the product warranty.

The output sensitivity of the load cell is based on its rated capacity so with a 10Vdc excitation applied you would get an output of 2mV * 10V = 20mV with the cell’s full rated capacity applied. This then varies linearly with the applied load so, if we assume a 50N rated capacity as an example, with 25N applied your output would be 10mV.

If your system requires a higher-level output signal then we can provide a signal conditioner to give signals such as 0-5Vdc, 0-10Vdc or 4-20mA, as well as bi-polar voltage signals including ±5Vdc and ±10Vdc. Here are some links to suitable signal conditioners:

https://appmeas.co.uk/products/instrumentation/load-cell-amplifier-sga/
https://appmeas.co.uk/products/instrumentation/miniature-load-cell-amplifier-ica/

TEDS stands for Transducer Electronic Datasheet. It is an electronic datasheet stored on a chip within the transducer that can be read by external instrumentation.

Transducer manufacture details, sensor type, type of interface, serial number, sensitivity, excitation and additional calibration data. All the data that is normally found on a calibration certificate.

Yes, when your transducer is re-calibrated the new data is written over the old information.