3D Printed Force Sensor with Inkjet Printed Piezoresistive Based Strain Gauge

With the combination of different 3D printing technologies, a novel approach has been proposed to fabricate a totally 3D printed sensor with composite structure in this paper, which has the advantages of simple, cost effective and time saving. The design, fabrication and testing of a 3D printed force sensor is presented. The 3D printed force sensor consists of a sensor substrate printed by a digital light processing (DLP) based 3D printer using high temperature resin, and an inkjet printed strain gauge made from poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT/PSS) ink. The position of the strain gauge was determined by finite element method. Finally, the force sensor was characterized within the range from 0 mN to 600 mN. The results indicated that the 3D printing technology may have a great applied potential in sensor fabrication.