N2401

The N2401 is an electronic torque meter, made by IEMI in Bucharest and designed at the ICE research institute in Bucharest [1]. A 1973 ministry report gives the research for an electronic torque meter with transducer (listed there as E 2401) as lasting from 1966 to 1971 [2].

ICE’s laboratory for electronic instruments for measuring non-electrical quantities designed approved prototypes for many branches of the economy: strain gauge equipment (some configurations were exported to East Germany in 1971–1974 and 1977–1989), vibration meters, dimensional gauges, ultrasonic non-destructive testers, geophysical well-logging equipment and railway equipment [1]. Its designs were made in series at IEMI (27 types) and at the Precision Mechanics Enterprise (5 types), or in ICE’s microproduction workshop (45 types) for small series and one-off models [1].

It came with transducers [3]. IEMI’s production table lists 10 units made in 1973–1976 [3].

Annex III.2.11 says that with its seven induction transducers, N 2401 A to G, it measured torque, rotational speed and the power delivered or absorbed, in steady or slowly varying conditions, on electric motors, internal combustion engines, gearboxes and transmissions, at test benches in factories and laboratories. The transducers gave two pulse trains whose time shift varied with the torque; the instrument was fully transistorised and had an output for a recorder or an external meter. The transducers were rated at 100 Nm (A), 200 Nm (B), 500 Nm (C), 1,000 Nm (D), 2,000 Nm (E), 5,000 Nm (F) and 10,000 Nm (G); A–C worked at 100–6,000 rpm and D–G at 50–3,000 rpm. The text gives a torque range of 0–20,000 Nm, twice the rating of the largest transducer in its table [4].