Dead Weight Tester

Leaders need time to think before pressing "send" on debit-card price controls

People often make mistakes when they write too hastily. That’s why computers have delete keys, and email software often provides a "spelling and grammar check" just to make sure there are no surprises hiding among the words. Sometimes, our legislative and regulatory institutions write laws or rules too hastily, and hit the equivalent of the "send" button without sufficient deliberation. When this happens, the result is not just a bit of embarrassment for the author - instead, millions of taxpayers, consumers, and businesses feel the pain. So it is with regulations on debit-card "interchange" fees being rushed to implementation barely six weeks from now.

The Dodd-Frank financial reform bill, which Congress passed in 2010, contained a number of flaws. Among these was an amendment from Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) instructing the Federal Reserve to develop new limits on costs and procedures surrounding "interchange," the framework through which debit card companies, merchants, and financial institutions process electronic payment transactions.

Normally, retailers and financial companies negotiate to arrive at a satisfactory interchange fee that will ensure debit-card transactions work properly for their customers. Instead, thanks to shrewd lobbying, the retailers called in federal authorities to cap the amount they'd have to pay for accepting cards. The new strictures propose a maximum of 12 cents per transaction, far less than the 44-cent average for interchange fees in 2009.

Even one of the Dodd-Frank bill’s sponsors, Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), noted that the interchange rules, "if not properly crafted, may have unintended consequences for consumer choice" and for "Congress’s intent to reduce burdens on community banks, credit unions, and government benefit programs." Frank’s latter reference should particularly worry taxpayers, since making debit cards costlier to use could worsen federal purchasing overhead and endanger efforts to deliver government payments for individuals with less red tape.

Furthermore, debit-card networks have invested considerable resources in creating secure electronic payment processing systems, for which they recover costs by charging market-based fees. Short-circuit that mechanism, and the costs simply surface elsewhere while the networks - along with, eventually, consumers and retailers - suffer. As the Government Accountability Office noted in its study of Australia’s interchange price-control regime, there was little "conclusive evidence" to suggest that any savings for merchants were passed along to consumers. Here at home, card issuers are already planning steps to keep the processing networks solvent. Earlier this year, American Banker reported that Visa would be forced to roll out a two-tiered fee structure for card issuers if the Federal Reserve’s edicts were ratified.

Dead Weight Tester | Water Flowmeter

DESCRIPTION

The dead weight tester apparatus consists of a chamber which is filled with oil free impurities and a piston – cylinder combination is fitted above the chamber as shown in diagram. The top portion of the piston is attached with a platform to carry weights. A plunger with a handle has been provided to vary the pressure of oil in the chamber. The pressure gauge to be tested is fitted at an appropriate plate.

OPERATION

The dead weight tester is basically a pressure producing and pressure measuring device. It is used to calibrate pressure gauges. The following procedure is adopted for calibrating pressure gauges. Calibration of pressure gauge means introducing an accurately known sample of pressure to the gauge under test and then observing the response of the gauge. In order to create this accurately known pressure, the following steps are followed.

The valve of the apparatus is closed.

A known weight is placed on the platform.

Now by operating the plunger, fluid pressure is applied to the other side of the piston until enough force is developed to lift the piston-weight combination. When this happens, the piston weight combination floats freely within the cylinder between limit stops.

In this condition of equilibrium, the pressure force of fluid is balanced against the gravitational force of the weights plus the friction drag.

Therefore, PA = Mg + F

Hence: P = Mg + F / A

where, P = pressure

Thus the pressure P which is caused due to the weights placed on the platform is calculated.

After calculating P, the plunger is released.

Now the pressure gauge to be calibrated is fitted at an appropriate place on the dead weight tester. The same known weight which was used to calculated P is placed on the platform. Due to the weight, the piston moves downwards and exerts a pressure P on the fluid. Now the valve in the apparatus is opened so that the fluid pressure P is transmitted to the gauge, which makes the gauge indicate a pressure value. This pressure value shown by the gauge should be equal to the known input pressure P. If the gauge indicates some other value other than p the gauge is adjusted so that it reads a value equal to p. Thus the gauge is calibrated.

APPLICATIONS:

It is used to calibrated all kinds of pressure gauges such as industrial pressure gauges, engine indicators and piezoelectric transducers.

A Double-Primary Dead-Weight Tester

A Primary Dead-Weight Tester for Pressures

Railway master mechanic

Industrial pressure, level, and density measurement

Industrial Instrumentation