Special Issue "Piezoelectric Sensors and Actuators"
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A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Physical Sensors".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 February 2013)
Special Issue Editor
Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. David W. Greve
1 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA
2 National Energy Technology Laboratory, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Website: http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~dwg
E-Mail: dg07@andrew.cmu.edu
Phone: +412 268 3707
Interests: piezoelectric sensors; surface acoustic waves; Lamb waves; defect detection; ultrasonic wave generation; ultrasonic wave detection
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Piezoelectric materials are very widely used in sensors and actuators. While the range of applications is quite diverse, they have in common the use of this class of materials to transform electrical to mechanical energy and vice versa. Because of this commonality, researchers with different interests can benefit from ideas and concepts employed in other fields. The aim of this special issue is to bring together innovative applications of piezoelectric materials in sensors and actuators. Papers addressing a wide range of applications of piezoelectric materials are sought, including but not limited to recent developments in the following areas: the manipulation of particles in microfluidic systems; piezoelectric motors; energy harvesting; chemical sensing, including harsh environment sensing; medical diagnostics; novel approaches to flaw detection; and structural health monitoring.
Both review articles and original research papers relating to the application of piezoelectric materials in sensors and actuators are solicited. There is particular interest in papers concerning applications where piezoelectric materials provide capabilities or characteristics that cannot be obtained using other approaches.
Prof. Dr. David W. Greve
Guest Editor
Submission
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed Open Access monthly journal published by MDPI.
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Keywords
- piezoelectric
- sensor
- actuator
- motors
- microfluidics
- harsh environment
- energy harvesting
- structural health monitoring
- medical diagnostics
Published Papers (20 papers)
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Received: 18 August 2012; in revised form: 17 September 2012 / Accepted: 25 September 2012 / Published: 11 October 2012
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Abstract: The work reported on this paper describes a new methodology implementation for active structural health monitoring of recent aircraft parts made from carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer. This diagnosis is based on a new embedded method that is capable of measuring the local high frequency impedance spectrum of the structure through the calculation of the electro-mechanical impedance of a piezoelectric patch pasted non-permanently onto its surface. This paper involves both the laboratory based E/M impedance method development, its implementation into a CPU with limited resources as well as a comparison with experimental testing data needed to demonstrate the feasibility of flaw detection on composite materials and answer the question of the method reliability. The different development steps are presented and the integration issues are discussed. Furthermore, we present the unique advantages that the reconfigurable electronics through System-on-Chip (SoC) technology brings to the system scaling and flexibility. At the end of this article, we demonstrate the capability of a basic network of sensors mounted onto a real composite aircraft part specimen to capture its local impedance spectrum signature and to diagnosis different delamination sizes using a comparison with a baseline.
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Received: 10 August 2012; in revised form: 10 October 2012 / Accepted: 12 October 2012 / Published: 15 October 2012
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Abstract: Precise displacement sensors are an important topic in precision engineering. At present, this type of sensors typically have a single feature of either translation or rotation measurement. They are also inconvenient to integrate with the host devices. In this report we propose a new kind of sensor that enables both translation and rotation measurement by using the combined effect of magnetostriction and piezoelectricity. As a proof of concept, we experimentally realized a prototype of non-contact translation-rotation precise sensor. In the current research stage, through both theoretical and experimental study, the non-contact displacement sensor is shown to be feasible for measuring both translation and rotation either in coarse or fine measurement. Moreover, owing to its compact, rigid structure and fewer components, it can be easily embedded in host equipment.
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Received: 9 August 2012; in revised form: 23 October 2012 / Accepted: 24 October 2012 / Published: 2 November 2012
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Abstract: In this paper, a new piezoelectric dynamic balance regulator, which can be used in motorised spindle systems, is presented. The dynamic balancing adjustment mechanism is driven by an in-plane bending vibration from an annular piezoelectric stator excited by a high-frequency sinusoidal input voltage. This device has different construction, characteristics and operating principles than a conventional balance regulator. In this work, a dynamic model of the regulator is first developed using a detailed analytical method. Thereafter, MATLAB is employed to numerically simulate the relations between the dominant parameters and the characteristics of the regulator based on thedynamic model. Finally, experimental measurements are used to certify the validity of the dynamic model. Consequently, the mathematical model presented and analysed in this paper can be used as a tool for optimising the design of a piezoelectric dynamic balance regulator during steady state operation.
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Received: 9 October 2012; in revised form: 7 November 2012 / Accepted: 27 November 2012 / Published: 4 December 2012
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Abstract: Due to advantages such as light weight, flexibility, and low cost, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) films have been widely used in engineering applications as sensors for detecting strain, pressure, or micro-force. However, it is known that PVDF strain sensors have strain cross-sensitivity in mutually orthogonal directions. Furthermore, the size of the PVDF film sensor would also affect the dynamic strain sensing performance. In this paper, to investigate the cross-sensitivity and size effects experimentally, we employ PVDF film sensors to perform dynamic measurements on a cantilever beam. Since the vibrations of the cantilever beam are excited by impacts of a steel ball, the induced highly repeatable transient responses contain a wide range of resonant frequencies and thus can be used to investigate both the size and cross-sensitivity effects of the PVDF film sensors in a dynamic sensing environment. Based on the experimental results of the identified resonant frequencies compared with results obtained from a strain gauge, finite element calculations, and theoretical predictions, suggestions for the use of the PVDF strain sensor in modal testing are given in this paper.
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Received: 7 October 2012; in revised form: 7 November 2012 / Accepted: 4 December 2012 / Published: 4 December 2012
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Abstract: Series-connected thin film piezoelectric elements can generate large output voltages. The output voltage ideally is proportional to the number of connections. However, parasitic capacitances formed by the insulation layers and derived from peripheral circuitry degrade the output voltage. Conventional circuit models are not suitable for predicting the influence of the parasitic capacitance. Therefore we proposed the simplest model of piezoelectric elements to perform simulation program with integrated circuit emphasis (SPICE) circuit simulations). The effects of the parasitic capacitances on the thin-film Pb(Zr, Ti)O3, (PZT) elements connected in series on a SiO2 insulator are demonstrated. The results reveal the negative effect on the output voltage caused by the parasitic capacitances of the insulation layers. The design guidelines for the devices using series-connected piezoelectric elements are explained.
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Received: 5 September 2012; in revised form: 14 December 2012 / Accepted: 18 December 2012 / Published: 27 December 2012
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Abstract: A device composed of a piezoelectric bimorph cantilever and a water electrolysis device was fabricated to realize piezoelectrochemical hydrogen production. The obvious output of the hydrogen and oxygen through application of a mechanical vibration of ~0.07 N and ~46.2 Hz was observed. This method provides a cost-effective, recyclable, environment-friendly and simple way to directly split water for hydrogen fuels by scavenging mechanical waste energy forms such as noise or traffic vibration in the environment.
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Received: 30 November 2012; in revised form: 28 December 2012 / Accepted: 11 January 2013 / Published: 18 January 2013
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Abstract: In the last decade there has been an increasing interest in the use of highly- and weakly- nonlinear solitary waves in engineering and physics. Nonlinear solitary waves can form and travel in nonlinear systems such as one-dimensional chains of particles, where they are conventionally generated by the mechanical impact of a striker and are measured either by using thin transducers embedded in between two half-particles or by a force sensor placed at the chain’s base. These waves have a constant spatial wavelength and their speed, amplitude, and duration can be tuned by modifying the particles’ material or size, or the velocity of the striker. In this paper we propose two alternative sensing configurations for the measurements of solitary waves propagating in a chain of spherical particles. One configuration uses piezo rods placed in the chain while the other exploits the magnetostrictive property of ferromagnetic materials. The accuracy of these two sensing systems on the measurement of the solitary wave’s characteristics is assessed by comparing experimental data to the numerical prediction of a discrete particle model and to the experimental measurements obtained by means of a conventional transducer. The results show very good agreement and the advantages and limitations of the new sensors are discussed.
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Received: 15 November 2012; in revised form: 5 January 2013 / Accepted: 21 January 2013 / Published: 6 February 2013
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Abstract: In this work mass loading sensitivity of a Sezawa wave mode based surface acoustic wave (SAW) device is investigated through finite element method (FEM) simulation and the prospects of these devices to function as highly sensitive SAW sensors is reported. A ZnO/Si layered SAW resonator is considered for the simulation study. Initially the occurrence of Sezawa wave mode and displacement amplitude of the Rayleigh and Sezawa wave mode is studied for lower ZnO film thickness. Further, a thin film made of an arbitrary material is coated over the ZnO surface and the resonance frequency shift caused by mass loading of the film is estimated. It was observed that Sezawa wave mode shows significant sensitivity to change in mass loading and has higher sensitivity (eight times higher) than Rayleigh wave mode for the same device configuration. Further, the mass loading sensitivity was observed to be greater for a low ZnO film thickness to wavelength ratio. Accordingly, highly sensitive SAW sensors can be developed by coating a sensing medium over a layered SAW device and operating at Sezawa mode resonance frequency. The sensitivity can be increased by tuning the ZnO film thickness to wavelength ratio.
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Received: 20 December 2012; in revised form: 28 January 2013 / Accepted: 2 February 2013 / Published: 12 February 2013
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Abstract: Enhanced functionality of electro-optic devices by implementing piezoelectric micro fibers into their construction is proposed. Lanthanum-modified lead zirconate titanate (PLZT) ceramics are known to exhibit high light transparency, desirable electro-optic properties and fast response. In this study PLZT fibers with a diameter of around 300 microns were produced by a thermoplastic processing method and their light-induced impedance and piezoelectric coefficient were investigated at relatively low light intensity (below 50 mW/cm2). The authors experimentally proved higher performance of light controlled microfiber transducers in comparison to their bulk form. The advantage of the high surface area to volume ratio is shown to be an excellent technique to design high quality light sensors by using fibrous materials. The UV absorption induced change in elastic constants of 3% and 4% for the piezoelectric coefficient d33.
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Received: 25 December 2012; in revised form: 4 February 2013 / Accepted: 27 February 2013 / Published: 1 March 2013
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Abstract: Piezoelectric materials can be used as actuators for the active vibration control of smart structural systems. In this work, piezoelectric patches are surface bonded to a composite laminate plate and used as vibration actuators. A static analysis based on the piezoelectricity and elasticity is conducted to evaluate the loads induced by the piezoelectric actuators to the host structure. The loads are then employed to develop the vibration response of a simply supported laminate rectangular plate excited by piezoelectric patches subjected to time harmonic voltages. An analytical solution of the vibration response of a simply supported laminate rectangular plate under time harmonic electrical loading is obtained and compared with finite element results to validate the present approach. The effects of location and exciting frequency of piezoelectric actuators on the vibration response of the laminate plate are investigated through a parametric study. Numerical results show that modes can be selectively excited, leading to structural vibration control.
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Received: 1 February 2013; in revised form: 13 March 2013 / Accepted: 13 March 2013 / Published: 2 April 2013
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Abstract: The increasing development of smart materials, such as piezoelectric and shape memory alloys, has opened new opportunities for improving repair techniques. Particularly, active repairs, based on the converse piezoelectric effect, can increase the life of a structure by reducing the crack opening. A deep characterization of the electromechanical behavior of delaminated composite structures, actively repaired by piezoelectric patches, can be achieved by considering the adhesive layer between the host structure and the repair and by taking into account the frictional contact between the crack surfaces. In this paper, Boundary Element (BE) analyses performed on delaminated composite structures repaired by active piezoelectric patches are presented. A two-dimensional boundary integral formulation for piezoelectric solids based on the multi-domain technique to model the composite host damaged structures and the bonded piezoelectric patches is employed. An interface spring model is also implemented to take into account the finite stiffness of the bonding layers and to model the frictional contact between the delamination surfaces, by means of an iterative procedure. The effect of the adhesive between the plies of piezoelectric bimorph devices on the electromechanical response is first pointed out for both sensing and actuating behavior. Then, the effect of the frictional contact condition on the fracture mechanics behavior of actively repaired delaminated composite structures is investigated.
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Received: 6 February 2013; in revised form: 20 March 2013 / Accepted: 21 March 2013 / Published: 10 April 2013
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Abstract: Bell-shaped vibratory angular rate gyro (abbreviated as BVG) is a new type Coriolis vibratory gyro that was inspired by Chinese traditional clocks. The resonator fuses based on a variable thickness axisymmetric multicurved surface shell. Its characteristics can directly influence the performance of BVG. The BVG structure not only has capabilities of bearing high overload, high impact and, compared with the tuning fork, vibrating beam, shell and a comb structure, but also a higher frequency to overcome the influence of the disturbance of the exterior environment than the same sized hemispherical resonator gyroscope (HRG) and the traditional cylinder vibratory gyroscope. It can be widely applied in high dynamic low precision angular rate measurement occasions. The main work is as follows: the issue mainly analyzes the structure and basic principle, and investigates the bell-shaped resonator’s mathematical model. The reasonable structural parameters are obtained from finite element analysis and an intelligent platform. Using the current solid vibration gyro theory analyzes the structural characteristics and principles of BVG. The bell-shaped resonator is simplified as a paraboloid of the revolution mechanical model, which has a fixed closed end and a free opened end. It obtains the natural frequency and vibration modes based on the theory of elasticity. The structural parameters are obtained from the orthogonal method by the research on the structural parameters of the resonator analysis. It obtains the modal analysis, stress analysis and impact analysis with the chosen parameters. Finally, using the turntable experiment verifies the gyro effect of the BVG.
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Received: 5 April 2013; in revised form: 16 April 2013 / Accepted: 16 April 2013 / Published: 18 April 2013
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Abstract: In this paper, two interlaced studies are presented. The first is directed to the design and construction of a dynamic 3D force/moment sensor. The device is applied to provide a feedback signal of forces and moments exerted by the robotic end-effector. This development has become an alternative solution to the existing multi-axis load cell based on static force and moment sensors. The second one shows an experimental investigation on the performance of four different adaptive nonlinear H∞ control methods applied to a constrained manipulator subject to uncertainties in the model and external disturbances. Coordinated position and force control is evaluated. Adaptive procedures are based on neural networks and fuzzy systems applied in two different modeling strategies. The first modeling strategy requires a well-known nominal model for the robot, so that the intelligent systems are applied only to estimate the effects of uncertainties, unmodeled dynamics and external disturbances. The second strategy considers that the robot model is completely unknown and, therefore, intelligent systems are used to estimate these dynamics. A comparative study is conducted based on experimental implementations performed with an actual planar manipulator and with the dynamic force sensor developed for this purpose.
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Received: 16 February 2013; in revised form: 15 April 2013 / Accepted: 18 April 2013 / Published: 25 April 2013
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Abstract: This paper presents the development of tactile sensors using the sol-gel process to deposit a PZT thin-film from 250 nm to 1 μm on a flexible stainless steel substrate. The PZT thin-film tactile sensor can be used to measure human pulses from several areas, including carotid, brachial, finger, ankle, radial artery, and the apical region. Flexible PZT tactile sensors can overcome the diverse topology of various human regions and sense the corresponding signals from human bodies. The measured arterial pulse waveform can be used to diagnose hypertension and cardiac failure in patients. The proposed sensors have several advantages, such as flexibility, reliability, high strain, low cost, simple fabrication, and low temperature processing. The PZT thin-film deposition process includes a pyrolysis process at 150 °C/500 °C for 10/5 min, followed by an annealing process at 650 °C for 10 min. Finally, the consistent pulse wave velocity (PWV) was demonstrated based on human pulse measurements from apical to radial, brachial to radial, and radial to ankle. It is characterized that the sensitivity of our PZT-based tactile sensor was approximately 0.798 mV/g.
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Received: 4 March 2013; in revised form: 25 March 2013 / Accepted: 28 April 2013 / Published: 7 May 2013
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Abstract: Piezoelectric bimorphs have been used as a micro-gripper in many applications, but the system might be complex and the response performance might not have been fully characterized. In this study the dynamic characteristics of bending piezoelectric bimorphs actuators were theoretically and experimentally investigated for micro-gripping applications in terms of deflection along the length, transient response, and frequency response with varying driving voltages and driving signals. In addition, the implementation of a parallel micro-gripper using bending piezoelectric bimorphs was presented. Both fingers were actuated separately to perform mini object handling. The bending piezoelectric bimorphs were fixed as cantilevers and individually driven using a high voltage amplifier and the bimorph deflection was measured using a non contact proximity sensor attached at the tip of one finger. The micro-gripper could perform precise micro-manipulation tasks and could handle objects down to 50 µm in size. This eliminates the need for external actuator extension of the microgripper as the grasping action was achieved directly with the piezoelectric bimorph, thus minimizing the weight and the complexity of the micro-gripper.
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Received: 10 March 2013; in revised form: 18 April 2013 / Accepted: 24 April 2013 / Published: 10 May 2013
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Abstract: This paper will discuss a SAW passive, wireless multi-sensor system under development by our group for the past several years. The device focus is on orthogonal frequency coded (OFC) SAW sensors, which use both frequency diversity and pulse position reflectors to encode the device ID and will be briefly contrasted to other embodiments. A synchronous correlator transceiver is used for the hardware and post processing and correlation techniques of the received signal to extract the sensor information will be presented. Critical device and system parameters addressed include encoding, operational range, SAW device parameters, post-processing, and antenna-SAW device integration. A fully developed 915 MHz OFC SAW multi-sensor system is used to show experimental results. The system is based on a software radio approach that provides great flexibility for future enhancements and diverse sensor applications. Several different sensor types using the OFC SAW platform are shown.
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Received: 4 March 2013; in revised form: 9 April 2013 / Accepted: 25 April 2013 / Published: 10 May 2013
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Abstract: This work presents the design, construction and characterization of air-coupled piezoelectric transducers using 1–3 connectivity piezocomposite disks with a stack of matching layers being the outer one an active quarter wavelength layer made of polypropylene foam ferroelectret film. This kind of material has shown a stable piezoelectric response together with a very low acoustic impedance (<0.1 MRayl). These features make them a suitable candidate for the dual use or function proposed here: impedance matching layer and active material for air-coupled transduction. The transducer centre frequency is determined by the l/4 resonance of the polypropylene foam ferroelectret film (0.35 MHz), then, the rest of the transducer components (piezocomposite disk and passive intermediate matching layers) are all tuned to this frequency. The transducer has been tested in several working modes including pulse-echo and pitch-catch as well as wide and narrow band excitation. The performance of the proposed novel transducer is compared with that of a conventional air-coupled transducers operating in a similar frequency range.
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Received: 6 April 2013; in revised form: 4 May 2013 / Accepted: 6 May 2013 / Published: 10 May 2013
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Abstract: Detection of ultrasmall masses such as proteins and pathogens has been made possible as a result of advancements in nanotechnology. Development of label-free and highly sensitive biosensors has enabled the transduction of molecular recognition into detectable physical quantities. Microcantilever (MC)-based systems have played a widespread role in developing such biosensors. One of the most important drawbacks of all of the available biosensors is that they all come at a very high cost. Moreover, there are certain limitations in the measurement equipments attached to the biosensors which are mostly optical measurement systems. A unique self-sensing detection technique is proposed in this paper in order to address most of the limitations of the current measurement systems. A self-sensing bridge is used to excite piezoelectric MC-based sensor functioning in dynamic mode, which simultaneously measures the system’s response through the self-induced voltage generated in the piezoelectric material. As a result, the need for bulky, expensive read-out equipment is eliminated. A comprehensive mathematical model is presented for the proposed self-sensing detection platform using distributed-parameters system modeling. An adaptation strategy is then implemented in the second part in order to compensate for the time-variation of piezoelectric properties which dynamically improves the behavior of the system. Finally, results are reported from an extensive experimental investigation carried out to prove the capability of the proposed platform. Experimental results verified the proposed mathematical modeling presented in the first part of the study with accuracy of 97.48%. Implementing the adaptation strategy increased the accuracy to 99.82%. These results proved the measurement capability of the proposed self-sensing strategy. It enables development of a cost-effective, sensitive and miniaturized mass sensing platform.
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Received: 23 March 2013; in revised form: 16 April 2013 / Accepted: 19 April 2013 / Published: 14 May 2013
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Abstract: This paper presents an improved monitoring system for the failure detection of engraving tool steel inserts during the injection molding cycle. This system uses acoustic emission PZT sensors mounted through acoustic waveguides on the engraving insert. We were thus able to clearly distinguish the defect through measured AE signals. Two engraving tool steel inserts were tested during the production of standard test specimens, each under the same processing conditions. By closely comparing the captured AE signals on both engraving inserts during the filling and packing stages, we were able to detect the presence of macro-cracks on one engraving insert. Gabor wavelet analysis was used for closer examination of the captured AE signals’ peak amplitudes during the filling and packing stages. The obtained results revealed that such a system could be used successfully as an improved tool for monitoring the integrity of an injection molding process.
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Sensors 2013, 13(6), 6910-6935; doi:10.3390/s130606910 (doi registration under processing)
Received: 23 March 2013; in revised form: 13 May 2013 / Accepted: 14 May 2013 / Published: 24 May 2013
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Abstract: Langasite surface acoustic wave devices can be used to implement harsh-environment wireless sensing of gas concentration and temperature. This paper reviews prior work on the development of langasite surface acoustic wave devices, followed by a report of recent progress toward the implementation of oxygen gas sensors. Resistive metal oxide films can be used as the oxygen sensing film, although development of an adherent barrier layer will be necessary with the sensing layers studied here to prevent interaction with the langasite substrate. Experimental results are presented for the performance of a langasite surface acoustic wave oxygen sensor with tin oxide sensing layer, and these experimental results are correlated with direct measurements of the sensing layer resistivity.
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Last update: 7 May 2013
