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Displacement measurements at a connector contact interface employing a novel thick film sensor

Displacement measurements at a connector contact interface employing a novel thick film sensor
Displacement measurements at a connector contact interface employing a novel thick film sensor
One of the key failure mechanisms for wiring and connector systems used in the automotive industry, is fretting and fretting corrosion at the contact interface of connectors. For many years, procedures have been carried out under laboratory controlled conditions to investigate both thermal and vibration fretting effects using environmental chambers and fretting tests. Both optical and visual inspections have also been adopted to observe the movement at the contact interface. However, these methods can be considerably inconvenient and costly. Furthermore, their suitability for field applications is limited. In order to study the fretting degradation at the actual interface for in-situ measurement effectively, a novel position sensor is designed to monitor the relative displacement. Thick film techniques are employed to fabricate miniaturized and cost effective resistive devices. The sensor is assembled into a connector sample by taking the place of the male component. When the interface experiences movement, the relative displacement of the contact point would cause a corresponding linear change of resistance measured across the male and female connection. The sensors are validated by a series of experiments and subsequently used in a field test to establish the relationships between the fretting effects with temperature, humidity and differential pressure, which is associated with temperature variation.
fretting, relative displacement, temperature, thick film sensor, vibration
1521-3331
566-573
Lam, Yu-Zhi
2a996163-eec3-478b-8298-002f33cb719f
McBride, J.W.
d9429c29-9361-4747-9ba3-376297cb8770
Maul, C.
b29b4565-722a-41de-9386-d1af3bcc7f04
Atkinson, J.K.
5e9729b2-0e1f-400d-a889-c74f6390ea58
Lam, Yu-Zhi
2a996163-eec3-478b-8298-002f33cb719f
McBride, J.W.
d9429c29-9361-4747-9ba3-376297cb8770
Maul, C.
b29b4565-722a-41de-9386-d1af3bcc7f04
Atkinson, J.K.
5e9729b2-0e1f-400d-a889-c74f6390ea58

Lam, Yu-Zhi, McBride, J.W., Maul, C. and Atkinson, J.K. (2008) Displacement measurements at a connector contact interface employing a novel thick film sensor. IEEE Transactions on Components and Packaging Technologies, 31 (3), 566-573. (doi:10.1109/TCAPT.2008.2001133).

Record type: Article

Abstract

One of the key failure mechanisms for wiring and connector systems used in the automotive industry, is fretting and fretting corrosion at the contact interface of connectors. For many years, procedures have been carried out under laboratory controlled conditions to investigate both thermal and vibration fretting effects using environmental chambers and fretting tests. Both optical and visual inspections have also been adopted to observe the movement at the contact interface. However, these methods can be considerably inconvenient and costly. Furthermore, their suitability for field applications is limited. In order to study the fretting degradation at the actual interface for in-situ measurement effectively, a novel position sensor is designed to monitor the relative displacement. Thick film techniques are employed to fabricate miniaturized and cost effective resistive devices. The sensor is assembled into a connector sample by taking the place of the male component. When the interface experiences movement, the relative displacement of the contact point would cause a corresponding linear change of resistance measured across the male and female connection. The sensors are validated by a series of experiments and subsequently used in a field test to establish the relationships between the fretting effects with temperature, humidity and differential pressure, which is associated with temperature variation.

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More information

Published date: September 2008
Keywords: fretting, relative displacement, temperature, thick film sensor, vibration
Organisations: Electro-Mechanical Engineering

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 63829
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/63829
ISSN: 1521-3331
PURE UUID: 659a5176-4c46-4079-8d38-34e1a30ae4ec
ORCID for J.W. McBride: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3024-0326
ORCID for J.K. Atkinson: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-3411-8034

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 06 Nov 2008
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 02:37

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Contributors

Author: Yu-Zhi Lam
Author: J.W. McBride ORCID iD
Author: C. Maul
Author: J.K. Atkinson ORCID iD

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