A method for measuring and calibrating resistive microtorque of a mechanical microcounter

This paper reports a technique for measuring the calibrating resistive input torque of a micro counter and gearbox assembly. The technique presented uses a hairspring (with a quantifiable output torque) to drive the input shaft to a mechanical counter and gearbox assembly in order to determine its resistive torque. The angular displacement of this spring, a parameter needed to compute the torque, is measured using a combination of a laser diode and a monolithic one-dimensional position sensitive device (PSD). This study includes the steps undertaken to develop it from a concept to functional prototype and interpretation of the results it yields. Tests show that in principle the use of a hairspring and PSD is a viable method of measuring micro-torque. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.