Digital Kitchen Scale: a Cantilever Load Cell in a Sealed Dual Housing (Edlund, 2009)

A digital scale built to survive a kitchen: spills, washing and being dropped. The load cell is a short cantilever with a strain sensor on top, and the electronics sit in a sealed compartment. Both are in a plastic chassis held loosely inside a second, outer housing of stainless steel and plastic, with crushable spacers between the two. Result: a digital kitchen scale with a removable pan, sealed display and touchpad, battery power and an overload stop under the load cell. Source: R. S. Whitney (Edlund Company), US Patent 7,554,043 (2009). Unknown: sizes, capacity, resolution and the electronics; the patent says suitable force transducers are readily available. Ours: the display and button types. Picture: Wikimedia Commons.