Journal of Material Sciences & Engineering

Diabetic neuropathy is a debilitating complication of diabetes that is often diagnosed long after irreversible damage has occurred in a patient. Diagnosis of the condition commonly occurs when examinations reveal physical changes in foot structure and ulcers of the foot; such damage reveals the condition but offers no chance at prevention. To better predict diabetic neuropathy and prevent damage, pressure sensors can be used to detect the onset of the condition before damage occurs. While several pressure sensing and foot mapping systems are commercially available, each is prohibitively expensive, requires specialized software, or maps a limited portion of the foot. We present an affordable, scalable, and high resolution pressure sensing system that maps the entire foot with a novel force sensor and sensor grid. The grid is based on a matrixed array of 704 individual sensors actuated by XactFSR resistive film. Each sensor consists of interlaced sensing fingers and measures 0.250 inch (6.35 mm) square. The device offers a solution that is several thousand dollars cheaper than other products, consists of commercially available boards and cables, and provides full mapping of the foot while operating with standardized and open source software packages. Our system provides emergent economies and regions presenting a high risk of diabetes with a predictive tool that can operate in nearly any environment.

Coating of zinc was applied on stainless steel wire substrate using twin wire arc spray to change the surface properties of the substrate, such adhesion, wettability, and corrosion and wear resistance. In this work, there are three basic experimental activities. Firstly the coating parameter optimization, followed by wire coating and finally the fiber coats properties characterization. The properties of the coated wires have analyzed through metallographic analysis and bending test is a mechanical test was used in this work to study qualitatively the adhesion of the coated layer. The results showed that the optimal parameters to coat Zn-layer on the stainless steel wires are as following:

Voltage: 22 V
Current: 200 A
Air pressure: 2.4 bar
Stand-off distance: 150 mm
Wire clamping pressure: 1 bar
Gun speed: 18000 mm/min
Nozzle diameter: 2.2 mm
Blasting (pressure/distance): 6 bar/100 mm
Linear wire speed: 785.398 mm/min

Average coating thickness was varied between 100 µm and 220 µm.

The Zn-coating layer started to crack for the bending angles less than 120^°C.