Development of sensing systems printed with conductive ink on gear surfaces: manufacturing of meander line antenna by laser-sintered silver nano-particles

Health monitoring methods for machines have been the subject of considerable efforts to maintain it at an appropriate timing. Failures of rotating machine elements can cause severe accidents, thus, to detect such failures is an important issue. However, health monitoring of rotating machine elements, such as gears, is challenging because of rotation at high speed in gearboxes, geometric complexity, space limitation for measurements, or another operation conditions. The long-term objective of the present research is to develop smart sensor systems for detecting gear failure signs. As the very first step, this paper proposes a new method to manufacture electrical circuits, such as sensors or antennas, on gears. We print these circuits directly on the gear surface using a laser sintering technique of conductive ink. For this purpose, we have begun to develop a 4-axis laser printing system. This paper shows the laser sintering conditions of the conductive ink splayed on steel plates insulated by polyimide layers. The conductivity of the printed lines was evaluated through observation with a miniature scanning electron microscope. Finally, according to the obtained laser sintering conditions, a meander line antenna was printed as a part of smart sensor systems.