Strain Sensor Signal Conditioner
Unexpected failure of manufacturing machinery can be a major problem, disrupting operations and causing unscheduled expense. A customer wanted to investigate the use of strain monitoring to get an early warning of trouble on machines critical to the production process. As this was an investigation, the cost needed to be kept down. In fact, other than the application, the only information provided for this project was that the strain sensors should be readily available and cost no more than ten or twenty dollars!
Although comprehensive requirements go a long way to ensuring the success of a project, ECROS Technology can make sensible decisions when a customer has only a rough idea of what he wants. In this case, the decision was made to design a signal conditioner for use with one or more inexpensive resistive strain sensors in quarter-, half- and full-bridge configurations. System sensitivity would be set to the needs of the application by selection of certain component values. With the required accuracy unknown, the overall system was made to the highest standard achievable without boosting the cost of the conditioner above that of the sensors themselves.
Conclusion
This project is on-going.
Resources
- Strain Gauges at Digi-Key Corporation, a stocking distributor