Metrological Characterization of Spring Impact Hammer Calibration

Abstract

This article presents a proposed approach and mechanism for calibrating a spring hammer. The metrological characterization of the calibration results was discussed and the uncertainty of this measurement was evaluated. The proposed approach demonstrates a more applicable calibration method using a high accuracy force transducer to measure the spring force and a high-precision deflection measuring instrument to measure the corresponding deflection. Different relative errors are calculated to detect the applicability and accuracy of this approach. The overall relative expanded uncertainty is presented based on the introduced repeatability and reproducibility errors, side by side with the uncertainties of the reference force transducer and length measuring device used. The proposed calibration technique is used to calibrate both types of spring impact hammers; the multi-step hammer and the single-step hammer. Two examples for calibrating multi-step hammer and another single-step hammer are presented with relative expanded uncertainties from 0.36% up to 5.37%.