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Thick film pressure sensor for industrial automation
The TK industrial pressure transmitter is a budget pressure sensor with a moderate accuracy developed for pneumatic automation & hydraulic system applications such as CNC machinery, packaging machines, hydraulic press and robotics, where reliability, robustness and affordability are valued higher than precise pressure measurements.The main ingredient for ensuring reliability is the TK pressure sensor diaphragm which is machined out of one piece of 17-4 PH stainless steel.
There are no welds or adhesive bonds involved in integrating the pressure sensing diaphragm with its retaining module, which is good for repeatability of performance and long term pressure integrity.
Thick film strain gauges are screen printed onto the reverse side of the sensing diaphragm to form a Wheatstone bridge circuit. This involves building up an insulating layer to isolate the strain gauge circuit from the metal diaphragm and a conductive layer for making connections between the strain gauges prior to adding the final resistive layer.
The sensor module is then ready to be welded to its pressure connection which is the only pressure containment weld required in the construction which helps to extend the pressure sensors MTBF (mean time between failures).
The mV output signal generated by the pressure sensor module is then processed by digitally programmable electronics to provide an amplified 4-20mA signal or voltage signal output. A pressure measurement accuracy of ±0.5% full scale is achieved as standard with the TK thick film pressure sensor internal signal conditioning and for enhanced measurement accuracy an optional ±0.25% FS can be specified.
The pressure transmitter is finished off with a choice of electrical connections with environmental protection of IP65, IP66 or IP67 depending on how wet the machinery gets externally, which include a DIN 43650 plug, Amphenol military bayonet and M12 connector.
The TK thick film pressure sensor is available with a wide choice of compound pressure ranges for the combined measurement of vacuum and pneumatic pressures from -1 to 1 bar up to 10 bar gauge. Due to the relative high thickness of the pressure sensing diaphragm and absence of an oil filled isolation diaphragm the TK thick film pressure sensor is suited to low to medium range hydraulic systems with pulsating surge pressures up to 500 bar pressure.
Related Products
TK product page for data sheets and pricing
4-20mA output pressure transmitters
5 or 10 volt output pressure transducers
Associated Topics
SOI technology for hight temperature applications
Contactless zero and span adjustment
Hydraulic pressure sensors for material testing applications
Site Last Updated: 09/02/12
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