The First Three-Dimensional Printed and Wet-Metallized Coriolis Mass Flowmeter

Abstract

This letter presents the first 3-D printed Coriolis mass flowmeter, along with its fabrication and experimental characterization. The sensor is conceived to operate in the mode-split conditions with a mismatch between the driven mode and sensed mode resonance frequencies of about 25 Hz around a nominal frequency of 250 Hz. The fabrication process is based on a smart combination of 3D-printing techniques and wet-metallization procedures, with the interesting features of a 200-μm capacitive gap, 500-μm wide 3D-printed microchannel walls, and metallization only on the outer channel surface, which prevents the application of a huge potential on the flowing fluid in operation. The measurements confirm, within a factor 3, the expected performance, with a 60 μV/(g/h) scale factor and a 3 g/hrms resolution on a 1-Hz bandwidth.