Magnetostrictive delay line improvement for long range position detection

We present some strategies to reduce transmission losses and increase the operating range of a position sensor based in the magnetostrictive delay line principle. They include the saturation of the sample to reduce the magnetoelastic coupling far from the emission and detection points. The experimental set-up for a prototype of such device is described and some results presented. The inhomogeneties of the sample are shown to produce large variations in the amplitude of the magnetoelastic pulse.