How to Select the Right Torque Sensor for your Application

Torque measurements are critical to process control and monitoring. Tightening torque of threaded fasteners, motor output horsepower measurement, and industrial automation processes are just a few of the common applications requiring repeatable and accurate torque measurements.

Controlling a prosthetic arm naturally and with dexterity has long been a goal of the medical community. Previous prosthetics had only two sensors which limited their ability to open and close the hand. Lack of mobility is a serious challenge for a tool designed to grasp and manipulate. With the most recent technological development from Sensing Systems, however, all that has changed.Sensing Systems Corporation successfully developed tri-axial fingertip sensors that have been placed in bionic arms and are controlled by the user’s brain. These sensors are attached to the patient’s nerve endings and dedicated electronics that transmit electrical signals to and from the brain, commanding the artificial limb to move in a more natural life-like manner while restoring the user’s sense of touch. These revolutionary fingertip sensors also have applications beyond prosthesis.

The torque sensor market in North America is strong and growing, and much of the increased demand has to do with the automotive industry's demand for better fuel efficiency. Other reasons torque measurement is increasing in the automotive sector are trends toward electrical power steering and condition-based maintenance.

The use of specialty industrial applications often requires creativity when it comes to measuring the forces involved in the application. One example of this is with friction stir spot welding (FSSW). This is a type of welding where two "parent" materials with low melting points are acted upon by a rotating tool that plastically deforms and forges the two parent materials together.