Components for unmanned vending machines

Online Editor

As the global COVID-19 pandemic causes and exacerbates wider societal issues, such as poverty and reduced access to essential supplies, companies across the world are turning their attention to providing solutions designed to help those directly affected.

In Asia, a national pro-consumption project is placing unmanned vending machines in strategic locations across communities and stations. The goal is to help boost sales of products in poorer areas and give people easier access to affordable food and key supplies.

Hamilton Precision Metals is working alongside this project to supply its specialty metal foils for strain gauges to operate as gravity sensors in unmanned vending machines. The ultra-thin precision foils separate the products stacked within each of the vending machines’ independent grids and help to automatically calculate weights in order to process payments.

Michael Zhu, China’s Regional Sales Manager, comments: “We are pleased to support this innovative and highly practical pro-consumption project and help those in poor rural areas affected by poverty. Our precision resistor alloy foil is engineered in a range of alloys and is custom-made to meet highly specific criteria for applications, like the gravity sensors inside these crucial vending machines.”

Hamilton Precision Metals supplies leading strain gauge manufacturers with a range of specialty materials, including Evanohm R and Constantan. Qualities include surface control for bonding strength, repeatable tight tolerance control, and a choice of thermal resistivities. Foil is re-rolled to some of the tightest tolerances and thinnest gauges in the industry to 1.5 microns (.000060”) in thickness.

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