Screen printed piezoelectric generator for helicopter health and usage monitoring systems

This paper presents a piezoelectric vibration energy harvester fabricated using screen printing. The formulation of a novel tungsten based polymer ink enables the deposition of an inertial mass enabling the entire structure to be fabricated by the printing process. The devices have been designed for use on an aircraft Health and Usage Monitoring System (HUMS). Initial devices produce a peak power of 117?w at 6.9m/s2 and 70Hz with an optimum load of 140kW and an output voltage of 2.9V.