Mechanical moment sensitivity compensation in shear beam transducers

A method for mechanically compensating the moment sensitivity of a shear beam transducer having a free end load application section, a mounting section and fillet means located substantially where said sections merge, comprising the following steps:

• providing said fillet means with an initial fillet radius which differs from a final compensating radius, establishing a load application axis extending through an optimal loading point in said load application section of said shear beam transducer, applying a defined load to the shear beam transducer in said optimal loading point, measuring the respective transducer output, applying said defined load off-center relative to said optimal loading point and again measuring the respective transducer output, comparing the two transducer outputs with each other to ascertain any difference between the two measurements, mechanically changing said initial fillet radius, applying said defined load again off-center and measuring the resulting output, comparing the outputs again to see whether the respective difference has been reduced relative to said first mentioned difference, and continuing the foregoing steps including the mechanical changing of the fillet radius until said difference is substantially zero, whereby the shear beam transducer is made substantially insensitive to off-center load applications, and whereby all shear beam transducers of the same type may be provided with the same compensating fillet radius once the foregoing steps have been performed for one shear beam transducer of that type.