SANT LONGOWAL INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING

& TECHNOLOGY

PRESENTATION ON
INTSTRUMENTATION & CONTROL

INCLUDED TOPICS :- DEFLECTION & NULL TYPE

instruments
 What are Deflection and Null type Instruments?

In electrical measurement systems, there are two

main principles that are employed for the purpose of
Instrumentation. These are known as the deflection
principle and the null principle and consequently the
instruments constructed are known as Deflection and Null
type Instruments respectively.
 In a Deflection type system, the quantity
to be measured produces an effect either in
the form of a voltage or a current. This effect
is then utilized to produce a torque that
causes a mechanical deflection. With the
help of a spring system, this torque is
countered by a restoring torque that
increases with the increase in deflection.
When the torques involved achieves a state
of equilibrium, the pointer comes to a stand
still. Now by equating the torques involved
Permanent Magnet Moving Coil
instruments (PMMC) are a type of
deflection type instruments. The action of
these instruments is based on the motoring
principle. When a current carrying coil is
placed in the magnetic field produced by
permanent magnet, the coil experiences a
force and moves. As the coil is moving and
the magnet is permanent, the instrument is
called permanent magnet moving coil
instrument. This basic principle is called
DArsonval principle. The amount of force
Front View Top View
The moving coil is either rectangular or
circular in shape. It has number of turns of
fine wire. The coil is suspended so that it is
free to turn about its vertical axis. The coil is
placed in uniform, horizontal and radial
magnetic field of a permanent magnet in the
shape of a horse-shoe. The iron core is
spherical if coil is circular and is cylindrical if
the coil is rectangular. Due to iron core, the
deflecting torque increase, increasing the
sensitivity of the instrument. The
controlling torque is provided by two
phosphor bronze hair springs. The
 The pointer is carried by the
spindle and it moves over a
graduated scale. The
pointer has light weight so
that it deflects rapidly. The
mirror is placed below the
pointer to get the accurate
reading by removing the
parallax. The weight of the
instrument is normally
Basic view of counter balanced by the
weights situated
PMMC A Type diametrically opposite and
Of Deflection type rapidly connected to it. The
scale markings of the basic
instruments d.c PMMC instruments are
usually linearly spaced as
In a Null type Instrument, the quantity to be
measured produces an effect that is compared
with an already calibrated effect of another
system. It is achieved with the help of a sensitive
galvanometer that shows a deflection for any
amount of difference between the effect to be
measured and the already calibrated effect. By
manual or automatic control, the calibrated effect
is varied until it becomes equal to the effect
produced by the measuring instrument. When
such a state is reached, the galvanometer shows
no deflection at all and quantity is successfully
A Galvanometer
(you may clearly
see the NULL
DEFLECTION at
standstill)
 Diagrammatic view of the Galvanometer
{the deflection of the galvanometer is proportional to the electric current I passing through it}.
The galvanometer makes use of the
fact that an electric current flowing
through a wire sets up a magnetic field
around the wire. In the galvanometer,
the wire is wound into a coil. When
current flows through the coil, one end
of the coil becomes a north magnetic
pole, the other a south magnetic pole.
When a permanent magnet is placed
near the coil, the two fieldsthe one
from the coil and the one from the
The amount of attraction and repulsion
increases as the strength of the current
increases. As Direct Current (DC) flows
through the coil of wire wrapped around the
compass, it developes a magnetic field
around the coil. That magnetic field causes
the magnet in the compass to deflect from
its normal position. The higher the current,
the more it deflects. Also, if you reverse
the direction of the current, it reverses
the poles of the "electromagnet", and
hence makes the compass deflect in the
opposite direction.
Deflection type instrument Null Type Instrument
Now these two types of devices have their own advantages and
disadvantages. While The Deflection type instruments are less
accurate as their calibration depends on the instrument
constants, these are better suited to measure transient
quantities because changes in a quantity can be better
followed by a pre-calibrated pointer. On the other hand, the
accuracy of Null type instrument is far higher because of
calibration done against a pre-calibrated system; but these are
much more suited to measure stable quantities because of the
problem of manual control involved in most of them.
Although with the advent of automatic control in these
systems, that problem shouldnt be encountered in new age
devices. Also the deflection system in a Null type instrument
needs to be much more sensitive than that of a deflection type
system for the sake of better accuracy.
In terms of usage, the deflection-type instrument is clearly more
convenient. It is far simpler to read the position of a pointer
against a scale than to add and subtract weights until a null point
is reached. A deflection-type instrument is therefore the one
that would normally be used in the workplace. However, for
calibration duties, the null-type instrument is preferable
because of its superior accuracy. The extra effort required to
use such an instrument is perfectly acceptable in this case
because of the infrequent nature of calibration operations.
For Your
Precious