fabrication technique in surface sintering assisted graphite nanoplatelets coated thin film polymer nanocomposites as resistance strain gages

Resistance strain gages have wide applications in development of electronic devices, robotic technologiesand force and torque loadcells. however, one main issue besides their rather high cost is their low gage factorand quite low range of linearity in high strain applications that results in challenges in design anddevelopment of load cells when calibration is of high importance in accurate measurement of loads.moreover, fabrication techniques so far are so sophisticated and time-consuming involveing several stages.this report focuses on introduction of a technique in fabrication of ultra-flexible electrically conductivepolymer nanocomposite sheets as resistance strain gages using film fabrication technology on the calenderingrolling mixing machine. soft polymeric thermoplastic polyolefines such as low-density polyethylene (ldpe)was used as the main substrate coated with graphite nano-platelets (gnps) as electrically conductivenanomaterials. to decrease the percolation threshold, it was hypothesized that coating of the fillers is appliedonto the polymeric sheets under heat and pressure on the roller mixing under high shear forces. the resultssuggested the feasibility of the technique used in fabrication electrically conductive thin sheets capable ofmaintaining their conductivity under intense bending. moreover, it was indicated that the conductivity of thespecimens was highly dependent upon the nano-reinforcements used. initial results conformed the linearrelationship between the sensors resistance and the length as expected. further studies are suggested to beperformed to estimate the gage factored of the fabricated sensor over a specific limit of applied load on ahome-made single-cantilever load cell devise.