FLUID POWER HANDBOOK
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SENSING
TECHNOLOGIES Sensors are used heavily in fluid power applications, to measure critical functions such as position, flow, pressure, temperature, and more. The variety of devices that exist to gauge these functions are many, but here, we take an in-depth look at some of the more commonly used devices — position and pressure sensors and transducers.
PRESSURE
TRANSDUCERS Pressure is defined as the force per
can be used by sensing instrumentation
given area required to stop a fluid from
such as microprocessors and computers.
expanding. Pressure transducers, which
Most often, this is accomplished simply
are a subset of pressure sensors, can be
through physical deformation or mechanical
any number of devices that sample and
deflection. Important criteria to consider
record the pressure in a system. A pressure
when selecting a pressure transducer are the
transducer converts a pressure measurement
general mechanism type, input and output,
into an analog electrical output signal, which
and performance specifications.
IMAGE COURTESY OF ANFIELD SENSORS
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