Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. (NYSE: VSH) announces the release of System 7000. Designed for use with Vishay Micro-Measurements StrainSmart software, System 7000 has all the features needed to acquire, reduce, and present data from strain gages and related sensors for stress analysis testing. Able to address a wide range of precision strain measurement needs, System 7000 can be configured with a virtually unlimited number of sensors. Applications include design verification of engineered products like aircraft, automobiles, construction machinery, bridges, buildings, as well as analysis of component failures from industrial (ventilating equipment, pumps, compressors, shafts, bearings) to computers (printed circuit boards, display screens, key boards, hard drives, peripheral devices) to medical (respirators, pumps, prostheses, autoclaves, dental implants) to consumer (sports equipment, cell phones, electronic gaming, lawn and garden equipment, bicycles).

System 7000 hardware is housed in a high-channel-density enclosure. Users can intermix strain gages, strain-gage-based transducers, thermocouples, and other sensors including those with high-level voltage outputs in groups of eight by choosing the appropriate sensor card for up to 128 channels in a 4U-height, 19-inch, rack-mountable scanner. An Ethernet interface allows flexible positioning of scanners, and multiple scanners can be easily synchronized using a single sync cable.

System 7000 is a high-performance data acquisition instrument with measurement accuracy of +/-0.05% of full scale. Each channel card employs a 24-bit analog-to-digital converter. Scan rates up to 2048 samples per second are available for simultaneous reading of all sensor inputs. Combinations of analog and flexible Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filters are available to provide adequate anti-alias filtering at all scanning rates. Each sensor card has high-capacity, nonvolatile data storage capability. Electronically selectable bridge-completion resistors allow the user to choose between 120-, 350-, and 1000-ohm strain gages through software selection.

System 7000 has several design features that reduce total cost of ownership. It is capable of self-calibration with a removable calibration reference. Calibration can be performed anywhere, and there is no need to return the entire system to the factory for calibration. Thus, downtime while waiting for calibration is essentially eliminated. Input connectors are RJ-45 type, and simple cable-crimping tools enable fast assembly time. Individual scanners can be separated and located close to sensors to reduce sensor cabling costs.