Actions
Forum Thread Details
  • State Suggested Answer
  • Replies 3 replies
  • Answers 2 answers
  • Subscribers 264 subscribers
  • Views 828 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Related

Paint Brush with internal Force Reader

rlikht

As a professional painter, the consistency in your brushstrokes are due in large to how much pressure you push the bristles of the brush against the surface you're painting. This action involves a very low, and very precise degree of pressure.

 

What I am after is the best way to measure the force of the strokes on the brush unit itself, and read it onto my laptop. This, I'm thinking, will involve either a few sensors within the hairs, or even installed into the base. Wireless is preferable.

 

 

Can somebody please recommend a product that could be purchased to achieve what I'm after?

 

Thank you,

Richard

 

Ps. Please redirect me if this is posted in the wrong subforum.

Parents
  • 0

    Hi Richard,

     

    As you place the brush against the surface and pull it across the surface I can imagine two forces come into play. You have the force normal (perpendicular) to the surface and you have the the force tangential to the surface. I am not a painter but I might also assume that you sense the resistance to the tangential force and adjust the normal force accordingly. The type of surface would play a factor as the rougher surface would have more friction and produce more drag on the brush. Your hand and your vision are the sensors, your brain is the control mechanism, and your muscles supply the forces. There are sensors called load cells that can measure forces. If you had two of these cells in parallel (SIDE BY SIDE), in the correct orientation, in the handle of a brush they could conceivably measure normal force as an addition of their output and tangential force as a difference of their outputs. I am not an engineer myself and I suspect that this might be a little difficult and perhaps expensive. The forces that you would need to measure accurately are probably in the area of single or fractional Newtons. Sensors to do this are not cheap. I am hopeful that your question will attract more input from better engineers than myself as you have gotten me curious as well. This sounds like a great project and I will watch this thread and add more if I can think of other things.

     

    John

Reply
  • 0

    Hi Richard,

     

    As you place the brush against the surface and pull it across the surface I can imagine two forces come into play. You have the force normal (perpendicular) to the surface and you have the the force tangential to the surface. I am not a painter but I might also assume that you sense the resistance to the tangential force and adjust the normal force accordingly. The type of surface would play a factor as the rougher surface would have more friction and produce more drag on the brush. Your hand and your vision are the sensors, your brain is the control mechanism, and your muscles supply the forces. There are sensors called load cells that can measure forces. If you had two of these cells in parallel (SIDE BY SIDE), in the correct orientation, in the handle of a brush they could conceivably measure normal force as an addition of their output and tangential force as a difference of their outputs. I am not an engineer myself and I suspect that this might be a little difficult and perhaps expensive. The forces that you would need to measure accurately are probably in the area of single or fractional Newtons. Sensors to do this are not cheap. I am hopeful that your question will attract more input from better engineers than myself as you have gotten me curious as well. This sounds like a great project and I will watch this thread and add more if I can think of other things.

     

    John

Children
No Data