FINE WIRE PROVIDES QUALITY EDGE TO SENSORS

FINE WIRE PROVIDES QUALITY EDGE TO SENSORS


Increasingly popular, sensors provide vital monitoring capabilities for many systems, and enable product designers to add exciting functionality to other devices.Get more news about Super fine peek Sensor Cable,you can vist our website!

When it’s all said and done, the accuracy and reliability of even the most commonplace sensor depends on components being within exacting specifications and able to withstand the most extreme conditions for their applications, whether heavy duty usage, harsh environments, or even low usage, where the sensor is normally “out there waiting.” iniscule products, such as ultra fine “sensing” wires or fine wires used in making electronic connections are among the critical components that are sometimes underspecified when it comes to materials and protective coatings, a situation that can put an entire system or mission at risk.
When you consider that the accuracy or lifespan of the sensor, and therefore the system is at stake, it’s often just not practical to pecify off the shelf fine wire products.There is frequently a specific metal alloy or bimetal laminate or protective coating that will do the job better and perform under abnormal conditions, or conditions due to an application the sensor manufacturer did not anticipate,” said Mike Greenelsh, president of California Fine Wire (CFW), of Grover Beach, CA. CFW is a pioneer in the manufacture of fine and ultrafine ire, and produces a variety of up to 1000 combinations of metals and alloys.

“Fine wire products are used in highly sophisticated devices, where the physics of the wire’s primary function is the focus of the design engineer,” explained Greenelsh. “But if the device, and hence the wire, will be subjected to an external stresses such as vibration or extreme temperatures, that usually indicates the need for a metal or coating that will enable the wire to withstand the stresses.”

One of CFW’s customers, Analytical Industries, of Pomona, CA, drives home the significance of incorporating the appropriate material and also processing into the specification of the fine wire used in their sophisticated products. The company manufactures sensors used for medical, industrial, automotive, food processing and personal safety applications.

Patrick Prindible, vice-president and co-founder, says his firm’s primary products are electrochemical sensors that monitor gases for ontaminants such as oxygen. For example, in natural gas pipelines,Analytical Industries’ oxygen analyzer sensors sample natural gas pipelines for oxygen that indicates a leak in a pipeline due to corrosion or some other damage.

Analytical Industries’ electrochemical sensors use a special fine wire ribbon, normally silver or gold-plated silver, approximately 0.0015 to 0.002 in. thick for internal connections, and 0.005 in nickel wire for external connections.

“These wires are attached to pins, from which we bring negative and positive wire foil leads from inside the sensor tube to a small circuit board attached to the back. One of the internal foils is positive, and the other negative; connecting them creates the circuit needed for an operating sensor,”Prindible explained.
The fine wires used in these sensors are critical as far as metal purity and tolerances are concerned. “If the metal is thicker than our specification, it hinders the performance of the sensor,” Prindible said. “What it amounts to is that any oxygen molecules have too far to travel before they reach the sensing surface.”

Prindible also points out if the metal is either too thick or too thin, it becomes brittle for an “interference fit” that obviates the need for a life shortening weld, and can fracture, which will break the critical circuit or otherwise dramatically reduce performance and product life.