3D printed wireless sensor can be used to detect large areas of the environment
2018-04-17 12:00:12
China Instrument Network Instrument R&D Recently, a research team of the International Abdullah University of Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia published a paper that proposed that 3D printed disposable wireless sensors can be used to detect large areas of the environment.
Research shows that 3D printing has the potential to make low-cost, fully integrated wireless sensors that can be used in extreme environmental conditions such as forest fires and industrial leaks.
The systems proposed by KAUST researchers rely on a central antenna that serves as a strategic location for the receiver of a sensor network, either inside cooling towers and chimneys, or on trees planted on the ground.
The disposable sensor or node itself consists of three different parts: an air capacitor for monitoring humidity, a circuit board, and a complete metal cartridge for subsequent sensors and an antenna.
These three cores are simultaneously 3D printed in Stratasys' rigid opaque VeroBlackPlus material. When 3D printing was performed using Stratasys' Objet 260 Connex 13D printer, the inkjet ink layer was cured with UV light into 3D parts.
The metal, conductive stripes are then printed on the wall of the package so that the sensor is used to detect gas and temperature. They are two-dimensional inkjet prints made by a silver ink developed by internal researchers.
(Original title: 3D Print Sensors deliver "warning" in real time under extreme conditions)