The tricky bit is sensing the amount of tension on the bandsaw blade. For that task, [Stephen] mounted a load cell in place of the original tensioning spring. A few adapters helped that job ...

Italy’s Tintoria Stamperia Gorlese (TSG) upgraded existing machinery with sophisticated web tension load cells, increasing efficiency and reducing installation and tuning time by up to 50%.

It does this with a load cell, stepper motor, and ball screw, all under microcontroller control. Pull the string through, let the machine tension it, clamp it down, and then move on to the next row.