Illinois Tool Works Inc.

Christopher Martin Joyce

Griffin Thomas Howard

Fernando Castro

Philippe Levesque

Alexander T Carbone

Fernando L Castro

An example hinged device flexible substrate testing system includes: a first plate comprising a first surface configured to hold stationary a first side of a hinged device under test; a second plate comprising a second surface configured to hold a second side of the hinged device under test; a first cam follower coupled to the second plate; a first drive arm configured to move the first cam follower to cause the second plate to rotate about a hinge pivot axis of the hinged device under test; an actuator configured to rotate the drive arm; and a load cell configured to measure loads on the first plate while the actuator moves the second plate.

Methods and apparatus to perform load measurements on hinged devices

An example flexible substrate testing system includes: a first substrate support structure configured to hold stationary a first portion of a flexible substrate under test; a second substrate support structure configured to hold a second portion of the flexible substrate; an actuator configured to move the second substrate support structure to fold the flexible substrate and to unfold the flexible substrate; and a load cell configured to measure a load on the flexible substrate.

Methods and apparatus to perform load measurements on flexible substrates

The disclosed embodiment is an extensometer to measure transverse strain with a passive vertical system making use of a linear optical encoder. The sensor arms are mounted on respective carriages which traverse on respective linear tracks. The carriages are spring-loaded so as to bias the sensor arms toward a closing direction. In order to separate the sensor arms and act against the force of the springs, the carriages are responsive to or pushed by upper and lower drive brackets which are affixed to respective upper and lower portions of a looped timing belt. The extensometer makes use of a low-friction design to minimize rolling friction in the movement of the two sensor arms. One carriage includes an encoder read-head which directly faces an encoder scale on the other carriage. In this configuration, the exact relative position of the two carriages, and hence the two sensor arms, can be read.

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Braintree, MA, United States of America

Christopher Martin Joyce