Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Pressure sensors have been widely used in a lot of areas because of its
applicability to almost everything. Its ability to measure altitude, flow rate, and even
density shows how useful pressure sensors are in our everyday lives. In this section, it
will be shown how pressure sensors are applied at fields such as: automotive, aircrafts,
medicine, building, consumer products, and the industry.
Moving on, buildings also use pressure sensors in order to maintain its stability.
Pressure sensors are utilized in monitoring air flow rates, as it can indicate whether an air
filter needs cleaning due to lowering of pressure. Sensors are also used to maintain
relative duct pressure levels as well as monitoring the building’s safety precautions such
as fire suppressor pipelines pressure sensors. Lastly, the use of ammonia as a refrigerant
can be dangerous to humans at the event of a leak, pressure sensors can detect leaks
and help prevent or minimize the danger when such an event happens.
On the other hand, pressure sensors have been used in consumer products as
well. Vacuum cleaners are known to be pressurized machines that help people in cleaning
their houses, pressure sensors are used in order to monitor the pressure. Pressure
sensors are also known to be utilized by GPS tracking devices as it can identify the
elevation of an individual by a barometric pressure sensor especially in urban areas.
Pressure sensors are also known to forecast hyper-localized weather where every
weather station have barometers. Moreover, these sensors are used for making better
coffee as there are two governing principles in achieving the perfect brew: temperature
and pressure. In fact, pressure is so key to the process, the word “espresso” means
“pressed out”. Pressure sensors designed for harsh environments are used in these
machines during the brewing stage and in the cleaning process that follows it in higher-
end coffee makers. Lastly, pressure sensors are used in extreme sports such as skydiving
and scuba diving.
Pressure sensors are widely used in the industry as well, they are key in
maintaining product quality, plant safety and effective product quantity. Its first use is on
monitoring process flows, especially when there is a filter involved. The pressure
difference between the upstream and downstream must be close to zero if it is clean and
up to its permissible value when it is not. Pressure sensors are also used to determine
levels in tanks. Usually these sensors are placed at the bottom of the tank, and the liquid
level would be easily determined especially when the liquid density is known already.
References
Sparks, D. (2013). MEMS pressure and flow sensors for automotive engine
management and aerospace applications. In Mems for Automotive and Aerospace
Applications. https://doi.org/10.1533/9780857096487.1.78
https://www.avnet.com/wps/portal/abacus/solutions/technologies/sensors/pressure-
sensors/applications/automotive/
https://www.avnet.com/wps/portal/abacus/solutions/technologies/sensors/pressure-
sensors/applications/consumer/
3 Industrial Applications: Pressure Sensors: The Design Engineer's Guide: Avnet Abacus.
Retrieved from
https://www.avnet.com/wps/portal/abacus/solutions/technologies/sensors/pressure-
sensors/applications/industrial/
https://www.avnet.com/wps/portal/abacus/solutions/technologies/sensors/pressure-
sensors/applications/building-automation/
8 Life Saving Medical Applications - Pressure Sensors - The Design Engineer's Guide -
https://www.avnet.com/wps/portal/abacus/solutions/technologies/sensors/pressure-
sensors/applications/medical/