Force metrology

News and Updates

Calibrating the Universe: Behind the Scenes, NIST Scientists Play a Critical Role in Improving Gravitational Wave Measurements

August 2, 2022

Space-time ripples, exploding stars, colliding black holes …. and the National Institute of Standards and Technology? NIST doesn’t exactly come to mind when

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

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

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

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

Publications

Certification of Standard Reference Material® 3461 Reference Cantilevers for AFM Spring Constant Calibration

August 15, 2022

Author(s)

Richard S. Gates, William Alexander Osborn, Mark McLean, Gordon A. Shaw, James J. Filliben

A batch of 94 silicon chips containing arrays of uniform rectangular cantilevers were microfabricated from a single silicon wafer and their stiffnesses and

Design of an electrostatic feedback for an experiment to measure G

June 20, 2022

Author(s)

Stephan Schlamminger, Leon Chao, Vincent Lee, David B. Newell, Clive Speake

The torsion pendulum at the heart of the BIPM apparatus to measure the gravitational constant, $G$, is used to measure the gravitational torque between source

Disinfection of Respirators with Ultraviolet Radiation

March 25, 2022

Author(s)

Dianne L. Poster, Matthew Hardwick, C Cameron Miller, Michael A. Riley, W. W. Shanaka I. Rodrigo, Andras E. Vladar, John D. Wright, Christopher D. Zangmeister, Clarence Zarobila, Jeremy Starkweather, John Wynne, Jason Yilzarde

Data for interpreting virus inactivation on N95 face filtering respirators (FFRs) by ultraviolet (UV) radiation are important in developing UV strategies for

KEY COMPARISON - Instrumented Charpy tests on low- and high-energy specimens

February 18, 2022

Author(s)

Enrico Lucon, Renato Reis Machado

This report describes a CIPM Key Comparison through the SIM/MWG-7 organization, concerning instrumented impact testing of low-energy (20 J) and high-energy (100