Built-in "Health Check" for Pressure Transducers

"Health check" would be built into pressure transducers, according to a proposal, to enable occasional, rapid, in situ testing of the transducers between normal pressure-measurement operations. The health check would include relatively simple devices that, upon command, would provide known stimuli to the transducers. The responses of the pressure transducers to these stimuli would be analyzed to quantify (at least approximately) deviations from the responses expected from previous rigorous calibrations. On the basis of such an analysis, a given pressure transducer could be removed from service, rigorously recalibrated, or continued in use with corrections applied for calibration drift. The use of the health check could provide timely warnings of pressure-transducer malfunctions and make it possible to retain confidence in the calibrations of pressure transducers while reducing the frequency with which they are replaced or subjected to full laboratory recalibration.