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Flexures for Kibble balances: Minimizing the effects of anelastic relaxation
Published
Author(s)
Lorenz Keck, Stephan Schlamminger, René Theska, Frank Seifert, Darine El Haddad
Abstract
Modern weighing cells would not be possible without flexure technology. Flexures are thin metal strips that form pivots, and they can be engineered to bend in a prescribed fashion, producing a desired restoring torque. In contrast to other pivots, flexures provide motion without stick-slip friction. The range of motion in traditional balances is minimal, and, hence, anelastic effects can be neglected. Employing the same technology in Kibble balances challenges that assumption because the necessary velocity mode requires a relatively large excursion of the balance. Here, we study the anelastic relaxation that would occur after a sinusoidal excursion of the balance beam. Then, we discuss several erasing procedures that can mitigate the effect of spurious stress on the weighing mode.
Keck, L.
, Schlamminger, S.
, Theska, R.
, Seifert, F.
and El Haddad, D.
(2024),
Flexures for Kibble balances: Minimizing the effects of anelastic relaxation, Metrologia, [online], https://doi.org/10.1088/1681-7575/ad57cb, https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=957262
(Accessed October 9, 2025)