JPH0477574B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a manual muscle strength meter for manually measuring various muscle forces of the body, and particularly to a small and portable manual muscle strength meter.

[Related technologies and their problems]

An example of this type of measuring device is, for example, JP-A-58-
Publication No. 120141 discloses a housing that can be held with one hand, a force-responsive actuator means, and a means for electrically measuring the force applied to the actuator means. However, this type of device must measure various parts of the body with one device, and when measuring muscle strength by applying it to a large area of the body, such as abdominal muscle strength, it is necessary to measure muscle strength at various points on the body. The actuator means, which has a narrow contact area, cannot accurately measure muscle force over a wide area, such as abdominal muscle force. That is, since the conventional example uses the cantilever beam A as the force detection means as shown in FIG. In this case, a moment M is generated on the cantilever beam A, which affects the strain meter C. However, strain meter C
can be measured accurately in the vertical direction, but errors occur when measuring rotational force. Therefore, when this actuator means B is applied to a wide area of the body, the forces F _A and F _B applied to the ends of the actuator means B, etc. As a result, a moment was generated, and the total force applied to the actuator means B could not be accurately measured. Furthermore, it was not possible to measure tensile force with this cantilever beam A.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made based on the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a manual muscle strength meter that is small and portable and capable of measuring muscle strength over a wide area.

[Summary of the invention]

To achieve the above object, the present invention has a housing consisting of an upper case and a lower case, and a shear type strain meter that is housed between the upper case and the lower case and measures the force that compresses or tensions the upper case and the lower case. , means connected to the shear type strain gauge for latching the maximum measured value of compressive force or tensile force, and means connected to the latching means for digitally displaying the maximum value.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

Reference numeral 1 denotes a housing consisting of an upper case 2 and a lower case 3 made of synthetic resin or the like that are soft to the touch, and a metal reinforcing plate 4 is screwed onto the inner surface of the upper case 2 to prevent deformation of the upper case 2. . Reference numeral 5 designates a stepped L-shaped angle connected to the reinforcing plate 4, and one end of a flexible body 7 containing a shear type strain gauge 6 is fixed to this angle 5 with a bolt 8.

The lower case 3 is molded to be movable in the vertical direction relative to the upper case 2, and has a reinforcing plate 9 screwed onto its inner surface. The other end of the flexible body 7 is fixed to the reinforcing plate 9 with a bolt 10, so that the upper case 2 and the lower case 3 can extend and contract in the vertical direction via the flexible body 7. Reference numeral 11 denotes a decorative plate attached to the upper surface of the upper case 2, which hides the screws fixing the upper case 2 and the reinforcing plate 4.

The amount of deflection of the flexible body 7 due to compression of the upper case 2 and lower case 3 is detected by the strain cage 6 as a change in resistance value, and this resistance value is converted into a digital value by the V/F converter 12. Then, the maximum value of this deflection amount is latched in the latch circuit 13,
This maximum value is displayed on the display 14 as muscle strength. These V/F converter 12 and latch circuit 1
3 etc. are mounted on a printed circuit board 15 as an integrated circuit, and the upper case 2 is mounted on this printed circuit board 15.
A power source 16 using a built-in dry battery is connected to the power source 16. 17 is an on/off switch for this manual muscle strength meter, 18 is a reset switch for resetting the values of the display 14 and the latch circuit 13, and 19 is a battery storage lid.

The present invention constructed as described above has reinforcing plates 4 and 9 on the inner surfaces of the upper case 2 and the lower case 3 made of synthetic resin, etc., which are soft to the touch but easily deformed, so that, for example, as shown in FIG. When measuring , all the muscle force applied to the lower case 3 in contact with the body A is applied to the reinforcing plate 9, and even if the lower case 3 is deformed, it is accurately transmitted to the flexure body 7 via the reinforcing plate 9.

In this case, since the present invention uses a shear type strain cage 6, as shown in FIG.
This shear type strain gauge 6 detects the stress generated inside the flexure body 7 even if a moment M is generated in the flexure body 7 due to a force applied to the flexure body 7 at a position shifted from the center line of the flexure body 7. Therefore, the forces F _A and F _B applied to various parts of the lower case 3 can also be accurately measured.
In addition, since this shear type strain gauge 6 can also measure tensile force, it is also possible to measure the tensile force that pulls the upper case 2 and the lower case 3. In addition, since the area of the lower case 3 is large, when measuring muscle strength in which the body bends back in this way, the lower case 3, which transmits the muscle force to the flexible body 7, can be prevented from shifting from the body, making it easy to measure. . Therefore, this single device can measure the muscle strength of each part of the body. Furthermore, since the maximum value of the muscle force detected by the strain gauge 6 is latched in the latch circuit 13 and the maximum value is digitally displayed on the display 14, it is easy to detect the measured value, and the device can be made compact. can be converted into

[Other Examples]

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described in detail above, it can be modified as appropriate within the scope of the gist of the present invention. For example, the means for measuring the compressive force interposed between the upper case 2 and the lower case 3 may be a flexible body 7 with a built-in strain gauge 6, a potentiometer, a spring spring, or a fluid sealed in the flexible body 7. It is also possible to detect the pressure change. Further, in addition to the V/F converter 12, an A/D converter or the like can also be used. Furthermore, the manual muscle strength meter of the present invention can also be used as a grip strength meter or a weight scale.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As detailed above, according to the present invention, there is provided a shear type strain meter that is housed between a housing consisting of an upper and lower case, and the upper and lower cases, and measures the force that compresses or tensions the upper and lower cases. By providing a means connected to the shear type strain gauge to latch the maximum measured value of compressive force or tensile force, and a means connected to the latch means to digitally display the maximum value, it is possible to use a small and portable handheld device. To provide a manual muscle strength meter that can easily and accurately measure muscle strength at any part of the body by increasing the area of contact with the body.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing one embodiment of the present invention;
The figure is a sectional view, Figure 3 is a block diagram, Figure 4 is a front view showing the state of use, Figure 5 is a perspective view of the main parts showing the force applied to the strain gauge, and Figure 6 is a perspective view of the conventional device. be. 1...Housing, 2...Upper case, 3...Lower case, 4...Reinforcement plate, 6...Strain gauge, 7...
Flexible body, 9... Reinforcement plate, 12... V/F converter,
13...Latch circuit, 14...Display device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A shearing type strain meter that is housed between a housing consisting of an upper and lower case and the upper and lower cases and measures the force that compresses or pulls the upper and lower cases; 1. A manual muscle strength meter comprising: means connected to the meter for latching the maximum measured value of said compressive force or tensile force; and means connected to said latching means for digitally displaying said maximum value. 2. The manual muscle strength meter according to claim 1, characterized in that a reinforcing plate is formed inside the upper case.