Printing sensors and electronics directly on the objects is very attractive for producing smart devices, but it is still a challenge. Indeed, in some applications, the substrate that supports the printed electronics could be non-planar or the thermal curing of the functional inks could damage temperature-sensitive substrates such as plastics, fabric or paper. In this paper, we propose a new method for manufacturing silver-based strain sensors with arbitrary and custom geometries directly on plastic objects with curvilinear surfaces: (1) the silver lines are deposited by aerosol jet printing, which can print on non-planar or 3D surfaces; (2) photonic sintering quickly cures the deposited layer, avoiding the overheating of the substrate. To validate the manufacturing process, we printed strain gauges with conventional geometry on polyvinyl chloride (PVC) conduits. The entire manufacturing process, included sensor wiring and optional encapsulation, is performed at room temperature, compatible with the plastic surface. At the end of the process, the measured thickness of the printed sensor was 8.72 μm on average, the volume resistivity was evaluated 40 μΩ∙cm, and the thermal coefficient resistance was measured 0.150 %/°C. The average resistance was (71 ± 7) Ω and the gauge factor was found to be 2.42 on average.
Keywords: aerosol jet printed; non-planar surfaces; photonic sintering; plastics; printed electronics; silver ink; strain gauges; temperature sensitive.