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The bending of plastic optical fiber (POF) is used to develop a weighing sensor by fully gluing POF onto a strip of spring steel used as a clamped beam for sensing, keeping the glued fiber either on the top or bottom side of the beam. Force, in the form of weight, is applied to the beam in two ways: by attaching a pan (i) at one of the ends of the beam or (ii) at the center of the beam, with proper clamping. The known weight is added in the pan for calibration purposes. The output light intensity of the fiber, measured as voltage, changes practically linearly with increasing weight up to a certain limit due to the macrobending of POF. It is found that though elongative bending decreases the output intensity, compressive bending gives a reverse effect. The response time for sensing is found to be approximately 5–7 s with larger recovery time (⩽1 min). No noticeable hysteresis is observed. The thickness and length of the beam are varied and optimized. The sensor specifications can be tailored by this to some extent. A minimum weight of 5 g and a maximum of ∼1900 g could be measured in a linear range for the beam-length used.

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