Cooper Instruments & Systems ELF 4200 Flexiforce Paper Thin Sensor - Manual (Page 33)

CF10 30 6/24/08 Rev. H
4.4.9 Help Menu
Help Menu (same when focus is on either a Real-time or Movie Window):
Help Topics: opens the help file associated with the Multi-Channel ELF software.
About ELF:
opens the About ELF dialog box, which displays the software and hardware (device) version numbers
for your ELF system, and gives you information on how to contact Tekscan (shown below).
5.0 SENSOR LOADING CONSIDERATIONS
The following general sensor loading guidelines can be applied to most applications, and will help you achieve the
most accurate results from your tests. It is important that you read the Sensor Performance Characteristics
section for further information on how to get the most accurate results from your sensor readings.
5.1 SENSOR LOADING
The entire sensing area of the FlexiForce sensor is treated as a single contact point. For this reason, the applied
load should be distributed evenly across the sensing area to ensure accurate and repeatable force readings.
Readings may vary slightly if the load distribution changes over the sensing area.
Note that the sensing area is the silver circle on the top of the sensor only.
It is also important that the sensor be loaded consistently, or in the same way each time. If the footprint of the
applied load is smaller than the sensing area, the load should not be placed near the edges of the sensing area, to
ensure an even load distribution. It is also important to ensure that the sensing area is the entire load path, and that
the load is not supported by the area outside of the sensing area.
If the footprint of the applied load is larger than the sensing area, it may be necessary to use a "puck". A puck is a
piece of rigid material (smaller than the sensing area) that is placed on the sensing area to ensure that the entire