Energy Harvesting Engineering Services
Smart Material offers engineering services for modeling, development, production and testing of vibration energy harvesting devices based on the MFC product line.
Harvesting energy from environmental vibrations has seen increasing interest during the past years as part of the general heightened awareness in alternative energy sources. Next to the typical electro-mechanical methods, ferro electric devices have proven to be very effective in harvesting energy for low power devices that are often found in portable electronics, sensor-controlled and condition monitoring systems, due to the wide usable frequency range and adaptability.
The MFC overcomes several disadvantages that arise when using bulk piezo ceramic in vibration energy harvesters. The MFC's robustness and reliability increases service lifetime to more than 10 years, and its flexibility allows easy adaptation to various structures. Bonding the MFC to any structure and form allows for the design of non-resonant harvesters, which opens many new applications.
Smart Material is actively involved in the research and development of vibration energy harvesters and is actively presenting its research and results at many of the leading conferences dedicated to the growing energy harvesting applications.
You will find additional publications and some of our recent conference presentations under the Publication section on our website.
We also offer Energy Harvesting evaluations kits and electronic harvester circuits as products, including MFCs attached to cantilevers for rapid prototyping.
Dynamic Analysis of Vibration Sources
- Single or broadband sources
- Frequency response analysis
- Strain and acceleration measurements
MFC Generator Development
- Development of resonating or broadband generator principles
- Finite element analysis of complex MFC harvester systems
- Numerical strain optimization for better efficiency
Prototyping of Harvester and Electronic Circuits
- Manufacturing of resonating MFC generators for different vibration sources
- Application of MFC elements on our customer’s structure
- Development and adaptation of suitable electronic harvesting circuits, including PMUs and energy storage
Mechanical and Electrical Evaluation
- Full-equipped test laboratories
- Frequency response and long term stability tests
- Electrical matching and efficiency enhancements
Interested in our engineering services? Please contact us with your project or development tasks:
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