CR4 Challenge: What's This Device?

Two person rope slide carriage?

I think I saw one of those fall off a '73 Ford Pinto once.

Ok...I'm mostly stumped. Give us a hint. It looks a bit incomplete. Is it part of something larger or is this more or less the state in which it's used?

My current (and almost completely random) guess: It has to do with transformer assembly?

I know it's not a thistlewick.

It appears to have wires attached. The U-shaped opening probably goes around a shaft or pipe, but does not clamp to it.

Sky clamp or ground clamp - for fine tuning the effective length of a transmitting areal.

The long "Bolts" look like the tie-down bolts used on a mill or CNC machine, the heads are HEX shaped, not round as they appear in the pic?

Only having 1 view makes it difficult to imagine what it does in RL, I think the plug on the right could be part of it, but could also be a left over from some experiment you were doing previously

I am guessing that it may be an electronic flow meter. It could be laid over a pipe, perhaps secured by the long bolts, and the flow measured by changes in the magnetic field of the two magnets on either side, Is this close?

Pete.

Could you remove the cardboard behind it please? I think it's part of whatever the cardboard's hiding from view.

Ah, yes, its obviously a cardboard thickness measuring instrument

I'm not saying, 'cos I didn't get points and slobbering adulation from everybody for knowing your ears. I've even sat on the things. No amount of begging will get me to reveal how I charge Del up at night.

Here's the device without the mounting hardware:

It can be possibly a pressure sensor

Motorized vise?

Have you put that sheet of cardboard there to hide something that would give it away?

no. This is an older device, from the "back room". However, the modern updated devices look much the same. It is the actual sensor from a much larger testing machine, used in the aero-space forging industry.

Spar crack detector.

One question: Is this a production piece or custom built?

This is a production device. In fact, there is an entire industry that provides this type instrumentation.

This testing is an absolute customer requirement. Almost every forging in every airplane and jet engine made in the free world would have been tested with a device such as this.

A hint: there is destructive and non-destructive testing required.

Spot welder?

Part of a benchtop stiffness tester? (The remaining bits of which are cleverly concealed behind the cardboard)

Multi-frequency structure or materials properties tester.......

Magnaflux ????

t looks as though this one is slightly damage; the looker's left front protrusion appears bent. I'm guessing the flat metal pieces coming out of either side are used to detect resonance. I am inclined to guess it is used to test for vibration in a high-speed shaft of some sort; the 4 protrusions set or establish balance... definitely a stumper.

Ultra sound sensor to look for stress cracks.

Here's the answer:

http://www.tiniusolsen.com/products/extensometers/extensometers-testers.html

Link didn't work, but Wikipedia has this. Globalspec even has a page for them.