Printed gear sensor for health monitoring (Development of three-axis laser printer for conductive ink and evaluation of laser-sintered electric circuits)

Abstract

This article intends to discuss the possibility of how to quickly improve the functions of in-situ sensing gear conditions. This study proposes a new manufacturing method of the sensors by using a laser beam machine sinters conductive inks sprayed on gear surfaces as a crack sensor. For this purpose, we have developed a three-axis laser-printing machine. The developed three-axis laser printer was based on a three-axis CNC machine, and a 1.6W laser module (445nm wave length) was mounted on the principal axis of the CNC machine. However, the laser power was not enough for sintering the conductive ink sprayed on a 5-micrometer-thick polyimide as an insulated layer on steel plates. Thus, the 1.6W laser module is replaced with a 3.5W laser module, which has the same wavelength. This paper shows laser sintering conditions for the new laser module. In addition, a simple sensor, which is able to detect cracks at roots of gear teeth, is proposed. The sensor is formed of an involute spur gear. The electrical property, such as resistance, of the proposed crack sensors was investigated in this paper, and it was concluded that the relation between the resistance and module of gears was linear, when the number of teeth was fixed.

Keywords

• gear sensor
• printed sensor
• conductive ink
• three-axis printer
• laser sintering