• medical applications such as patient monitoring during surgery and in post-operative care
• diagnosis and treatment of a variety of medical conditions
• aerospace applications including monitoring of the temperature of space station batteries and solar panels, as well as precise monitoring of the temperature of the joints in the robot arms of the station
• Instrumentation such as gas chromatography
• HVAC & R, communication stations, and other industrial applications

New, Improved

Second Generation Advanced Seat Belt Tension Test Sensor: EL20-S458

Seat belt tension sensor is located on the lower part of the seat belt on this crash test dummy.

Sensors used in automotive crash testing must be designed to withstand high levels of shock and comply with large physical displacements while performing highly accurate measurements.  Sensors used for testing seat belt tension, in particular, present special challenges:  the seatbelt – and any sensor affixed to the seatbelt – must allow substantial movement during the crash, causing high forces to be applied to the sensor itself, the sensor cable and cable restraints/lead exits from the sensor. Sharp edges on a sensor can damage the expensive crash test dummy or create measurement errors by snagging on airbag fabric during airbag deployment.  The intrinsic mass of the seat belt sensor, when violently accelerated and decelerated during a crash event, results in F= ma forces which produce error in the sensor output.  Additionally, deformation of the seatbelt and the sensor structure during loading produce inherently nonlinear sensor outputs – on the order of +/-3% of the full scale output of the sensor.

Measurement Specialties, through the acquisition of Entran, has placed into service hundreds of first generation versions of the extremely robust EL20 seatbelt tension sensor for more than a dozen years.  Our customers attest to the uncommonly high survivability of these instruments in continuous use in such hostile test environments. Many of our customers have 10-year old first generation EL20 units still in service!

The second generation EL20 builds on this earlier success by providing enhanced precision and even greater long-term durability.

Whether you are measuring parachute tether loads or using this advanced new sensor for your automotive seatbelt test environments, the EL20-S458 provides unparalleled precision, durability and return on your investment.  Consider these enhancements:

Rollercoaster rides help us to understand the impact of g g forces in our lives.

The engineering unit used to measure acceleration is “g”. 1 g is equivalent to 32.1741 ft/sec2. An accelerometer with a range of ± 10 g’s will measure acceleration from - 321.7405 ft/sec2 to +321.7405 ft/sec2. The value of 1 g is also expressed in other values such as inches (386.0885 in/ sec2) and meters (9.8057 m/ sec2).

Varying g levels are part of one’s everyday life, whether accelerating in a car, taking off in an airplane, sneezing or riding a roller coaster. We often do not know how much the g level is – but we certainly feel it.