Choosing a Handheld Force Gauge

Handheld force gauges are some of the most sought-after products on the market. With so many quality products to choose from, we’ve put together this guide for choosing a handheld force gauge that works best for your needs.

So first – what is a handheld force gauge? What do they do and how should you pick one?

We’ll answer all of these questions below.

Handheld Force Gauges

A handheld force gauge measures how items respond under test by monitoring forces acting against its stem in tension or compression.

Some examples include:

• The force required to separate two items.
• The amount of force required to insert one component into another.
• The amount of force required to extract a component.

Handheld force gauges are portable or can be mounted to a manual or motorized test stand for more sophisticated testing. All of our gauges are pre-calibrated and include a NIST traceable calibration certificate (unless otherwise noted). Our ISO9001:2015 calibration system will also send you a reminder when your instrument is due for calibration.

Applications

Handheld force gauges are helpful in a variety of environments and are used across industries. Some applications include:

• Suture strength testing.
• Peel testing testing.
• Switch activation force.
• Tensile testing.
• Wire terminal strength.
• Food texture analysis.
• Syringe insertion and extraction.
• Adhesion testing.
• Open force testing.
• Spring testing.
• Crimp pull testing.
• Puncture testing.

How to Choose Your Handheld Force Gauge

When looking at digital force gauges you may see the term sampling rate. This is the rate per second that the force gauge takes a reading or sample. Generally speaking, a higher sample rate equates to better performance. This is one of the most important factors when choosing a handheld force gauge. There are many economical digital force gauges available that offer high performance.

Accuracy rating is another important factor. Accuracy is usually listed at +/- percentage of full scale +/- 1 digit. This is an accuracy statement indicating that the gauge is accurate to within a percentage of the full scale with an uncertainty of one count (or least significant digit).

In the case of a 100lbf capacity gauge with an accuracy statement of +/- 0.3% of full scale, that means that the readings can be off by a maximum of 0.4lbf anywhere on the scale from 0 o 100lbf. For this reason, it is recommended to choose a gauge with a maximum capacity as close to the measured load.

Still have questions? Give us a call at 866-635-4741 or use our online form. We can walk you through picking out a handheld force gauge.