The new M16 Drag Measurement System, will be used to develop high performance triathlon and FINA approved swimwear, and is the latest advanced underwater application which can be used to measure the swimmer’s propelling force on a push-off pad. As swimming performance is measured to the nearest 0.01 second, with swimmers in the top 15 separated by only 0.10 seconds, athletes continue to look at factors or legal aids which could improve performance in water, such as individually tested swimsuits that reduce drag; this is where Huub dives in!
Innovative System to Measure Push-off Forces
Building on the success of its existing predecessor Measure Active Drag (MAD) system, the latest system provides the swimmer with a series of fixed push-off points which are attached to an adjustable rod and mounted 0.8 m below the water’s surface, so that front crawl action can be made whereby the swimmer uses the system as a ladder pushing off from each instrumented push-off pad. Mounted behind each individual push-off plate in the system is a PW15iA waterproof load cell from HBK which enables direct measurement of push-off forces for each stroke. When it comes to cell technology, it is a well known fact that too much mass between applied force and point of measurement can have a mass-spring system with low ‘Eigen’ frequency, but if you apply the load sensor at the point where forces are applied, the captured signal is of much better quality. With this in mind Huub needed a single point load cell which only registered the applied force irrespective of the point of application.
