Areas of Technology

Presentation

The technological sensors available from TEKNIKER respond to the growing demand for new technologies from different industrial market sectors and are designed to increase the reliability, efficiency and safety of processes and/or products.

Our multidisciplinary research team uses cutting-edge technologies to develop sensors and/or equipment for monitoring and measuring parameters in different sectors. Let's see some examples:

Industrial

• Sensors for monitoring the lubricating fluid of different components: multipliers, compressors, etc. Different measurement techniques are used to obtain a variety of parameters relating to the "health" of the lubricating fluid and thus the machine.
• Optical sensors (VIS - IR) for monitoring the overall state of degradation of lubricating fluids. These sensors measure the adsorbence of the fluid in different bands of the spectrum to predict the degradation of the fluid.
• Detection of particles suspended in lubricating fluid. The image obtained of the fluid is used to analyse and extract information concerning the size, shape and amount of particles in the fluid, these being an effective indicator of the cause of faults, while allowing machine wear to be detected.
• Detection of the water content of lubricating fluid. The presence of water is undesirable in lubrication systems and we have developed a sensor to determine the amount of water by absorption in a near-infrared band.

Health

• Microsensor for measuring blood pressure. We have designed, manufactured and calibrated a microsensor for measuring systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The microsensor measures 10x10 mm and is based on piezoresistive sensor membrane only 20 mm thick, with an area of 1,500x1,500 mm.
  The sensor operates over the range from 50 to 250 mm Hg and has a sensitivity of 80 VV/V/mm Hg.
• Fluorescence biosensor for detecting proteins. We have developed a biosensor based on immobilising probe proteins on surfaces structured at minimum nanometre scale and then introducing the sample with the problem protein. The antigen-antibody reaction is detected by fluorescence, achieving sensitivities of approximately ng/ml in serum for proteins such as Immunoglobulin G or C-reactive Protein.

Agrofood

• NIR sensor for detecting proteins and fats in dairy fluids. We have developed an on-line device for controlling the quality of dairy fluids, based the absorbance of the fluid in the infrared range (780 - 1100 nm) of the light spectrum.
• NIR sensor for monitoring different stages of wine fermentation. We have developed an on-line device for monitoring the different stages of fermentation of wine, based the absorbance of the fluid in the infrared range (780 - 1100 nm) of the light spectrum.