Design and characterization of innovative 3D printed embedded strain gauges

In this paper a low-cost load cell with four embedded strain gauges has been developed using Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) technology. Two commercial materials, conductive and non-conductive, have been used to manufacture the sensor in a single and non-stop printing cycle. Afterwards, each strain gauge has been characterized by evaluating the resistance change in relation to the applied force and as a consequence, it has been found that they are sensible to deformations due to compression and tension. Hence, it has been proved that with this manufacturing approach it is possible to integrate sensitive elements such as strain gauges into nonsensitive elements to create low-cost sensors using FDM, one of the most common 3D printing technology.