Force metrology

News and Updates

NIST researcher Jared Strait with a prototype hand-held KDFR

MEASURING UP: Kibble Dynamic Force Reference

July 18, 2023

Static force, such as the weight of a person standing motionless on a bathroom scale or the force that an office full of equipment exerts on a high-rise floor

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

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

Publications

The Quantum Electro-Mechanical Metrology Suite

March 27, 2024

Author(s)

Frank Seifert, Lorenz Keck, David B. Newell, Darine El Haddad

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is building a robust open-source hardware and software Quantum Electro-Mechanical Metrology Suite

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

Tools and Instruments

NIST's million-pound deadweight stack, assembled

4.45 MN Deadweight Force Generating Machine (Million Pound Force Dead Weight Machine)

The largest of 6 NIST deadweight force generation machines, the 4.45 MN Deadweight Force Generating Machine can apply 20 equal force increments of 222 kN (or

Laser Doppler Vibrometer located in 218/D012 (Group 643.09)

Laser Doppler Vibrometer Microscope

Since 2006, the Nanomechanical Properties Group has pioneered the use of Laser Doppler Vibrometry (LDV) to calibrate the stiffness of AFM cantilevers using the