Force metrology

News and Updates

Measuring Up: NIST Calibrates Masses for Unique Air Force Deadweight Machines

November 18, 2021

Mechanical engineers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have just finished calibrating several dozen large metal masses, which will be

A Billion Tiny Pendulums Could Detect the Universe’s Missing Mass

October 13, 2020

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and their colleagues have proposed a novel method for finding dark matter, the cosmos’s

Atomic ‘Swiss Army Knife’ Precisely Measures Materials for Quantum Computers

July 6, 2020

It images single atoms. It maps atomic-scale hills and valleys on metal and insulating surfaces. And it records the flow of current across atom-thin materials

Industry Impacts

A man in a hardhat standing on top of the million-pound weight stack with a person standing at the bottom.

Massive Forces for Heavy Industry

Measuring large forces, such as the thrust of a rocket engine or the deflection of an aircraft wing, requires well-calibrated force sensors. NIST’s unique

Projects and Programs

Dynamic Mechanical Metrology: Acceleration, Force, and Acoustics

Ongoing

The Dynamic Mechanical Metrology Project develops methods to provide accuracy in, and provides calibration services for, acoustic, vibration, acceleration, and

Accurate Calibration of Atomic Force Microscope Cantilever Spring Constants using Laser Doppler Vibrometry

Ongoing

The application of atomic force microscopy to go beyond topographic imaging and accurately measure nanomechanical properties of materials often depends on being

Publications

Calibration of Triaxial Accelerometers by Constant Rotation in the Gravitational Field

December 13, 2021

Author(s)

Michael Gaitan, Jon Geist

We extend the use of the intrinsic properties calibration method for triaxial accelerometers that we reported earlier from discrete angular steps to using a

High amplification laser-pressure optic enables ultra-low uncertainty measurements of optical laser power at kilowatt levels

October 15, 2021

Author(s)

Aly Artusio-Glimpse, Kyle Rogers, Paul A. Williams, John H. Lehman

We present the first measurements of kilowatt laser power with an uncertainty less than 1 %. These represent progress toward the most accurate measurements of

Comparison of electrostatic and photon pressure force references at the nanonewton level

May 3, 2021

Author(s)

Gordon Shaw, John A. Kramar, Paul Williams, Matthew Spidell, Richard Mirin, Julian Stirling

This work describes a comparison between nanonewton force references derived from an electrostatic force balance and photon pressure force from calibrated laser

Scaling of Mass and Force Using Electrical Metrology

May 3, 2021

Author(s)

Gordon Shaw

The impending redefinition of the International System of Units (SI) allows realization of the kilogram using electrical metrology. It can be shown that