Kilogram per Square Centimeter (kg/cm²)

Kilogram or Kilogram Force per Square Centimeter (kg/cm2 or kgf/cm2) is a pressure unit that has been largely superseded by the SI unit system of pascal units. It is the metric equivalent of pounds per square inch (psi). 1 kg/cm2 equals 98,066.5 pascals.

Similarly to psi, kg/cm2 is part of a group of pressure units that relate pressure with weight. This is convenient in applications where a pressure is applied to generate a load such as in material testing. Typically a piston cylinder device is utilised to convert the applied pressure into a force. The force can be easily calculated in kilograms weight by multiplying the kg/cm2 pressure by the area to determine the weight applied in kilogrammes.

The most popular way of writing Kilogrammes per Square Centimeter is as kg/cm2, even though kgf/cm2 describes its meaning more accurately. The conventional way of writing it is misleading to some, since it reads as Mass / Unit Area and leads to confusion since pressure is always defined as Force / Unit Area.