Highly reproducible printable graphite strain gauges for flexible devices

•Graphite strain gauge is printed on flexible plastic foil.•Xenon flash lamp appears to be efficient for curing the graphite ink.•Printed strain sensor shows a large gauge factor and fast response.•We report a highly reproducible sensor response under cyclic mechanical deformation.•Temperature compensation for strain gauge is proposed. A growing area for the electronics industry is the development of flexible components for novel devices. Controlling the flexibility of such devices requires the precise and reliable measurement of strains in a manner compatible with the form and function of the device. In this article, we demonstrate the fabrication and characterization of printed strain gauges with a gauge factor as high as 19.3±1.4, fast signal response and high reproducibility. The device is made of graphite ink deposited by screen printing on a plastic substrate. The flexible printed sensor is capable of precisely measuring repetitive tensile and compressive bending strain changes. An approach for eliminating the temperature-induced errors of strain gauges based on neutral axis engineering is also described.