Mechanoluminescence torque transducer integrated with cost-effective luminescence sensor and UV LEDs

This paper presents a preliminary study investigating the development of a new type of non-contacting torque sensor based on the mechanoluminescence (ML) of a microparticles, such as ZnS:Cu. Typically, applications of ML microparticles have been used in a stress sensor applications successfully, in which these particles are applied to realtime visualization of the stress distribution of cracks, impacts, and ML light generation. Kim et al. demonstrated their potentials of ML microparticles by successfully measuring the sinusoidal torque applied to a rotational shaft through the measurement of the ML intensity signature using a photomultiplier tube (PMT) sensor, which can be widely used in various industrial areas such as automotives, robotics, rotors, and turbines. To show their further potential applications, a cost-effective luminescence sensor and UV LEDs are integrated, and used for detecting the variation of ML intensity in this study. In addition, precision sinusoidal torque waveform with high frequency up to 15 Hz is used to investigate the frequency-dependent hysteresis phenomenon.