Mass Scale

What for?

Do you want to weigh the plate, a grain of sand on the plate or an elephant balancing itself on one leg on the plate.

Have a look at a bathroom scale.

Using the mass of an object to prove out a setup issue with a vibration fixture. Will be looking at the plate and parts fastened to said plate to balance out F=MA.

Suspend the plate from 3 load cells (or, depending on your requirements, support it from below on three load cells) equally spaced to balance the unloaded plate. Since you mention a vibration fixture, this suggests you should have access to the appropriate load cells. A little trigonometry, and you should be able to get all the information you need. A bit more accurate than a spring balance like a typical bathroom scale...

How about a rig that will horizontally or verticaly accelerate the test mass + plate to a velocity and measure the velocity attained and force needed to stop it? From that you can calculate the test mass and the estimated drag friction losses. You could compare the force needed to stop it to the force needed to accelerate the mass as kind of a built in check to compensate for off level conditions. Pneumatics could be an easy to control method to move the test plate. If you think I am guessing here, you are right!

Have FUN!

TT3

http://www.loadstarsensors.com/