Preliminary characterization of anelastic effects in the flexure mechanism for a new Kibble balance at NIST

A new Kibble balance is being built at the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST). For the first time in one of the highly accurate versions of this type of balance, a
single flexure mechanism is used for both modes of operation: the weighing mode and the
velocity mode. The mechanism is at the core of the new balance design as it represents a
paradigm shift for NIST away from using knife edge-based balance mechanisms, which
exhibit hysteresis in the measurement procedure of the weighing mode. Mechanical hysteresis may be a limiting factor in the performance of highly accurate Kibble balances approaching single digit nanonewton repeatability on a nominal 100 g mass, as targeted in this work. Flexure-based mechanisms are known to have very good static hysteresis when used as a null detector. However, for larger and especially longer lasting deformations, flexures are known to exhibit anelastic drift. We seek to characterize, and ideally compensate for, this anelastic behavior after deflections during the velocity mode to enable a 10 accurate Kibble balancemeasurement on a nominal 100 g mass artifact with a single flexure-based balance mechanism.