Guest Blogger: Measuring Radial Forces in Bolted Joints

Today we have a guest blogger, engineer Gunnar Johnson, writing about measuring radial forces in bolted joints. Lets find out more about how Michigan Scientific’s custom shear pin transducers can help you with your vehicle design.


Dynamic Vehicle Modeling

Dynamic Vehicle Modeling is a very powerful tool when developing a new vehicle.  Computer simulations can help design for chassis and suspension durability and can also provide insight on vehicle handling characteristics.  Data collected about the forces acting on a vehicle during real word testing is used to build computer simulations.  Being able to measure forces in bolted joints throughout a suspension system provides information that would otherwise have to be estimated.  This extra data can help build more accurate models and lead to better vehicle designs.

Shear Pin Transducer Design

Michigan Scientific’s shear pin transducer is designed to measure two perpendicular forces in bolted or pinned joints.  The shear pin transducer is designed to minimize cross-talk between channels and reduce sensitivity to off-axis loading.  This product is a strain gauge based transducer and has high output, which increases the signal to noise ratio and leads to more usable data.  It is machined from transducer grade stainless steel and has a weatherproof coating, making it suitable for in-field data collection in addition to laboratory test setups.

Vehicle Applications

The shear pin transducer is easily adaptable to a wide variety of applications.  The transducer replaces a production bolt or pin without changing the position of other vehicle components and requires minimal modification to other parts.   It has been used to measure damper forces between the strut and lower control arm of a vehicle, and to measure suspension loads into the chassis at the locations where the control arms mount to the frame.  Shear pins can also be used to measure forces in transmission mounts and engine mounts or isolators.

The shear pin transducer is a semi-custom product but each transducer is based on Michigan Scientific’s proven design.  Engineers will work with the customer to modify the design and meet the customer’s size and load requirements.  They have designed transducers to replace bolts as small as M12 and transducers with load ratings over 17,000 lbs.

If you are interested in speaking to an engineer about a Shear Pin Transducer application, please contact Michigan Scientific corporation today.

Gunnar Johnson is an engineer at Michigan Scientific Corporation and specializes in transducer design, including shear pin transducer design.