FUNCTIONAL

ELEMENTS OF
INSTRUMENT
ANIL KUMAR PATHAK
ME(REGULAR)
INSTUMENTATION AND CONTROL
NITTTR, CHANDIGARH

FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF AN
INSTRUMENT
It

is possible and desirable to describe both the

operation and the performance of measuring
instrument and associated equipments.
Performance is described in terms of static and
dynamic characteristics.
Operation can be described in terms of functional
elements.
Each functional element is made up of distinct
component or group of components which perform
the required and definite steps in measurement.

FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF AN
INSTRUMENT

PRIMARY SENSING ELEMENT

first

receives energy from the measured medium and

produces an output depending , in some way ,on the
measured quantity (measurand).
An instrument always extracts some energy from the
measured medium. Thus the measured quantity is
always disturbed by the act of measurement, which
makes a perfect measure theoretically impossible.
Good instruments are designed to minimize this
loading effect.
This stage is also known as detector transducer stage.

VARIABLE-CONVERSION ELEMENT
The

output of primary sensing element may

be any electrical signal i.e. voltage,
frequency etc or any physical variable like
displacement etc.
convert the output signal of the primary
sensing element to another more suitable
variable, while preserving the information
content of the original signal.

VARIABLE-MANIPULATION ELEMENT
Sometimes

it become necessary to manipulate the

signal.
change, in numerical value according to the some
definite rule but a preservation of the physical nature
of the variable, e.g. an electronic amplifier (analog).
It does not necessarily follow the variable conversion
element but may precede it.
The combination of variable conversion element and
variable manipulation elements is called signal or
data conditioning element.
These processes may be linear like amplification,
integration ,addition etc or nonlinear like
modulation , detection , sampling etc.

DATA-TRANSMISSION ELEMENT
when

the functional elements are separated,

it becomes necessary to transmit the data
from one to another.
It may be as simple as shaft and bearing or as
complicated as a telemetry system for
transmitting the signals from satellites to
ground.

DATA-PRESENTATION ELEMENT
presents

the information about the measured

quantity into a form recognizable by one of
human senses.
This function includes the simple indication
of a pointer moving over a scale.
These devices may be analog or digital
indicating instruments like ammeter,
voltmeter etc.

DATA-STORAGE/PLAYBACK ELEMENT
Sometimes

it is necessary to record the

measured data for further analysis.
In case the data is to be recorded, recorders
like magnetic tapes, high speed camera,
storage type C.R.T. , printers or
microprocessors may be used.
Storage-pen/ink
Storage/playback Tape
recorder/reproducer, memory

FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF
PRESSURE GAUGE

FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF
PRESSURE THERMOMETER

THANKS