Screen-Printed Smart Brake Pads With Integrated Piezoelectric Sensing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current production technologies for piezoelectric sensing devices are expensive and time-consuming due to multiple mechanical steps and machining processes, limiting their widespread adoption in applications like smart brake pads.
Innovation Solution
The use of screen-printing technology to directly integrate and polarize piezoelectric sensors on the vehicle brake pad, reducing production steps and costs, and enabling in-situ polarization, which simplifies the manufacturing process and allows for thinner, more flexible sensor designs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If traditional mechanical pressing and machining methods are used to produce piezoelectric sensing devices, then the sensors can be manufactured with required precision, but the production process becomes complex, expensive, and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple separate production steps (electrode deposition, piezoelectric material application, and sensor fabrication) into a single screen-printing process. The screen-printing method simultaneously deposits conductive paste for electrodes and piezoelectric paste in one operation, eliminating the need for separate mechanical pressing and machining steps while maintaining manufacturing precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional mechanical hydraulic pressing and machining operations with a screen-printing process. Instead of using mechanical presses to form piezoelectric ceramics and subsequent machining to create sensor geometries, the invention uses screen-printing to directly deposit functional layers that self-form the sensor structure, significantly simplifying the production process.
2Reliability
If multiple production steps and machining processes are employed, then the piezoelectric sensors can be manufactured, but the production time increases and mass production becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges electrode fabrication, piezoelectric material deposition, and sensor structure formation into a single screen-printing operation. This consolidation reduces the number of production steps from multiple separate processes to one integrated process, enabling faster production while maintaining sensor functionality and reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The screen-printing process performs preliminary actions by directly depositing functional layers with pre-defined geometries during the fabrication step itself. The conductive paste and piezoelectric paste are applied in specific patterns that pre-form the electrode structures and sensor geometry, eliminating the need for subsequent machining operations and accelerating production.
3Manufacturing precision
If piezoelectric sensors are produced separately and then installed on brake pads, then the sensors can be manufactured with controlled properties, but the overall system cost increases and the integration complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges sensor fabrication and brake pad manufacturing into a single integrated process. The screen-printing method directly deposits piezoelectric material and electrodes onto the brake pad substrate in one operation, eliminating the need for separate sensor production and subsequent installation steps. This integration maintains manufacturing precision while dramatically simplifying the overall manufacturing process.
Solution Approach 2:
The screen-printing process serves multiple functions simultaneously: it acts as the electrode deposition method, the piezoelectric material application method, and the sensor structure formation method. This multi-functional approach eliminates the need for separate specialized processes for each step, making the overall manufacturing process easier while maintaining controlled sensor properties.
4Strength
If thick piezoelectric ceramic layers are used, then the sensors can withstand mechanical stress, but the sensor geometry becomes rigid and less flexible in design
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses thin film technology by depositing piezoelectric paste that forms thin functional layers on the brake pad surface. These thin films maintain sufficient mechanical strength through the screen-printing formulation and firing process, while enabling flexible geometries and complex sensor designs that would be impossible with thick rigid ceramic layers.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the physical state and formulation parameters of the piezoelectric material from traditional thick sintered ceramics to screen-printable paste formulations. This parameter change allows the material to be deposited in thin, flexible layers that can conform to complex geometries while maintaining the necessary piezoelectric properties and mechanical strength through controlled firing processes.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach results in a cost-effective, robust, and sensitive force sensing system that can measure normal and shear forces, reducing production time and enabling mass production of sensorized brake pads with improved geometrical flexibility.
Implementation Method 1
Piezoelectricity is the electric charge that accumulates inside a particular type of solid materials in response to external applied mechanical stress.
Implementation Method 2
a strong electric field of several kV/mm can be applied to create an asymmetry in the previously unorganized ceramic compound. The electric field causes a reorientation of the spontaneous polarization
Data Source
AI summary
Various systems, devices, and methods for a vehicle smart brake pad comprising a sensor such as a force sensing device, and a production process thereof. For example, a production process of a vehicle brake pad can include the following steps in time sequence: applying an electrical circuit a support plate; screen printing on the electrical circuit of at least a first electrode; screen printing on the at least first electrode of a sheet of piezoelectric material; screen printing on the sheet of at least a second electrode; applying a friction pad on the support plate; and bulk polarizing the sheet of piezoelectric material by a supply of power to the at least first and second electrodes.