Abstract: A load sensor is provided, which prevents defective printing of strain-sensing elements caused by the deflection of a pressure-receiving portion and provides stabilized quality and fabrication yields. The load sensor is provided with the strain-sensing elements printed on the pressure-receiving portion. The tip portion of the strain generating portions having a loading point is allowed to stay in advance below the plane containing the print surface of the strain generating portions in the direction of thickness. The tip portion of the pressure-receiving portion will never stay above the print surface of the strain generating portions even when the pressure-receiving portion is deflected in the heating process during fabrication. Therefore, this makes it possible to avoid defective printing of the strain-sensing elements caused by the deflection of the pressure-receiving portion.

Abstract: The automobile seat occupant sensing unit has a sensor. The sensor consists of a sensor body and of at least one resistive strain gauge. The sensor body is provided with a main part and with at least one arm projecting from said main part. The main part is fitted with a fastening means for mounting the sensor and has a supporting surface. The at least one arm is elastically deformable in a direction transverse to the supporting surface, has a bearing area pointed toward a direction opposite the supporting surface and carries the at least one resistive strain gauge which is accommodated between the bearing area and the main part and which senses an elastic deformation of the at least one arm, said deformation being occasioned by the presence of an occupant in the vehicle seat.

Abstract: A transducer which enables the force experienced by a simple force sensor to be converted into an electrical signal which is then capable of being used as a measure of the degree of force experienced by an object to which the sensor is attached. Preferably force sensitive resistors fabricated as thick film resistors which are printed and then fired onto an electrically insulated substrate material which by its construction are used to form a force sensing device and the force is applied to the force sensitive resistors via a force transmitting member which is shaped to only apply force to the force sensitive resistors and not to fixed value resistors which are co-located on the force sensing device. In this way the force sensitive resistors and the fixed value resistors can be interconnected to give an optimum configuration of electrical measurement circuit such as a Wheatstone's bridge circuit.

Abstract: A web tension transducer for mounting between a stationary fixture and a pillow block rotationally supporting a web roller shaft is provided. The transducer includes a body mounted to said fixture for pivotal movement about a single horizontal axis at one longitudinal end, and having a strain gage mounted in a transverse horizontal slot at the opposite end of said body, thus providing maximum deflection of the strain gage in response to downward force applied to the shaft for measurement of the web tension.

Abstract: A position/movement sensitive effect-emitting strain gauge device includes a responsive portion, such as an electrically conductive fabric, that can be stretched or relaxed and that changes an electrical property, such as resistance, when stretched or relaxed. The changeable electrical property of the responsive portion is detected by a regulating circuit, which sends a signal that depends on the detected electrical property to an effect-emitting component. The effect may be sound or light emission or the like. The shape of the responsive portion can be such as to allow it to fit over a body part, e.g., a tube shape would allow it to fit over an elbow. When worn, the electrical property of the responsive portion, and therefore the emitted effect, depends on the user's positions/movements.

Abstract: A seat weight measuring apparatus capable of reducing the working cost and the assembly cost and improving its heat resistance and its corrosion resistance. A load sensor has a mechanism for receiving at least a part of the seat weight and converting the weight into an electrical signal. A strain gauge of the load sensor includes a lower insulating layer, a wiring layer, a resistor layer, and an upper insulating layer, which are sequentially formed on a sensor member.

Abstract: A vehicle seat weight sensor for sensing the weight of an occupant in a vehicle seat. The sensor has a housing. A substrate is located in the housing and has a first and second end. Strain gauge resistors are located on the substrate to generate an electrical signal in response to the substrate being stressed by the occupants weight. The electrical signal is changes as a function of the weight of the seat occupant. A connection mechanism is located at the first and second ends of the substrate to connect the substrate to the vehicle seat.

Abstract: A deflection sensing system for detecting deflection includes one or more deflection sensors between opposing sets of extensions. When one set of extensions is moved toward an opposing set of extensions, the deflection sensors are deflected. A preferred deflection sensor is a flexible potentiometer, which has a resistance that changes as the flexible potentiometer is deflected A flexible potentiometer includes a variable resistance material on a substrate. In a preferred system, the flexible potentiometer includes a cantilevered section, which is deflected about an extension with respect to the remainder of the flexible potentiometer, or with respect to a portion of the substrate not including the variable resistance material. A flexible potentiometer experiences less stress when in cantilevered form than when stretched between two extensions. In either case, the extensions may be joined to first and second corrugated plates.

Abstract: Providing a fingerprint detection apparatus which is small in size, low in cost and high in reliability. The fingerprint detection apparatus includes a shape transfer unit having a contact face for being contacted by a finger whose fingerprint is to be detected, the shape transfer unit having a thickness which varies, when a finger contacts with a surface which serves as the contact face, in accordance with pressures which are produced by concave and convex patterns of the fingerprint of the finger, and a detection driving circuit unit for detecting a pattern of the fingerprint based on variations of the thickness of the shape transfer unit and outputting results of the detection as electric signals, and detects a fingerprint pattern in accordance with variations of the thickness of the shape transfer unit.

Abstract: A weighing device designed to accurately measure an object's weight that is easier and more cost effective to produce. In particular, the device consists of a strain gage load cell having a pair of substrates mounted in parallel. The first and second substrates each contain a pair of resistors which are embedded in the surface of the substrate pair, forming a Wheatstone Bridge configuration. The substrates may be formed of ceramic.