Devise and Conquer is a Tactile Touchpoints blog series that shares real-world FlexiForce™ integration success stories. In most cases, the company worked directly with Tekscan's team of Applications Engineers to devise their creative force sensing solution.

Challenge: To Develop an Exact Force-Sensing Solution for a Unique Application – Fast

Many OEM partners we've worked with in the past typically begin their design & prototyping processes by experimenting with our line of standard FlexiForce touch sensors. During these processes, the design engineers may discover that the standard sensor they are using may not meet certain specific physical or technical requirements. This usually leads to a discussion on a custom force sensor design.

Cervitrol, a Swedish engineering firm, went down this exact path while developing a force-sensing tool for one of their customers. The project involved the design of an instrument for measuring pressures between a steel and rubber plate in commercial printing equipment. The instrument would let operators see forces in real time to quickly and easily adjust the machine.

Cervitrol had worked with standard FlexiForce sensors on other projects and product trials in the past, so they were familiar with the technology. However, this particular project required a more collaborative approach.

"The design needed a much smaller sensing area than the standard sensors provide, so it was necessary to ensure such a small area could, in fact, detect force," says Thomas Eisner, design engineer with Cervitrol. "The application involved a load range of about 10-to-100 PSI, and a long surface requiring an even pressure distribution through a line along the surface."

Eisner was confident that Tekscan could deliver a custom force sensing solution to address these challenges, but what he didn’t know was how quickly this customization process could be done. "An eight-week turnaround on the custom sensor, and good advice from the FlexiForce applications engineer, made for a smooth product-development process."

This example is just one of many ways FlexiForce sales & applications engineers can add value to your project, and minimize the overall design time.

Interested in learning more about the FlexiForce customization process? Click here!