FlexiForce FSR Sensor can help you to measure the force between almost any two surfaces. The sensors are highly flexible, have a paper-thin construction and robustness to stand up to most environments. Tekscan, the manufacturers, can create custom-designed force sensors because of the high durability and unique construction of the basic FSR sensor element. These meet the specific needs of several OEM customers. Off-the-shelf standard sensor products are also available for low-quantity requirements such as prototyping.
With FlexiForce FSR sensors, you can detect and measure any relative change in the applied load or force, the rate of change in force, detect touch and/or contact and identify force thresholds to trigger appropriate actions. Using a FlexiForce OEM force sensor offers several advantages over a competing product, such as superior linearity and accuracy of +/-3% over a wider range of forces. Tekscan provides expert technical guidance in custom solutions and they test all custom sensors to ensure they meet the agreed-upon specifications. Typically, the sensor output is not a function of the loading area and high temperature versions are available as well, going up to 400°F.
The FlexiForce FSR sensor functions as a force-sensing resistor within an electrical circuit. When there is no load or the force is very low, the resistance of the sensor is very high. The resistance decreases as force is applied to the sensor. If you connect a multi-meter to the outer two pins of the sensor, you can read a resistance, which will change when you apply a force to the sensing area. The sensor allows measurement of force against either resistance or conductance. Since the conductance curve for the sensor is linear, calibration is simple.
Integrating a FlexiForce FSR sensor within an application is very easy. One way is to use it in a force-to-voltage circuit. It will be necessary to calibrate the sensor for converting its output into the appropriate engineering unit. Based on the setup, you can easily adjust the arrangement to increase or decrease the sensitivity of the force sensor.
Typical performance specifications of the sensor are very impressive. The error in linearity is less than +/-3%, when the line is drawn from zero to 50% loading. When applying 80% of full force, a conditioned sensor can be expected to be repeatable with a spread of less than +/-2.5% of full scale and a hysteresis of less than 4.5% of full scale. With a constant load of 90% of the sensor rating, the total drift does not go beyond 5% per logarithmic time. If you are measuring impact load, the time required for the sensor to respond to an input force is less than five uS. The sensors work reliably between 15 and 140°F or -9 and +60°C, which are standard. For High-Temp versions, the operating range is 15 to 400°F or -9 to +204°C. The force reading change per degree of temperature is +/-0.2% for every °F or 0.36% for every °C.
FlexiForce FSR sensors have a variety of applications. They are used in bed monitoring, color balancer quality control, fitness training, golf grip measurements, improving robot balance and grip, detection of infusion pump occlusion and several other manufacturing and monitoring purposes.
