A review: additive manufacturing of flexure mechanism for nanopositioning system

Abstract

A comprehensive review relevant to the design and fabrication of nanopositioning stages based on additive manufacturing (AM) technology has been for the first time introduced in the academic society. With the development of AM technology, AM has been applied in many engineering design areas such as aerospace, automotive, consumer electronics, and so on. Due to current limitations of AM tolerance (surface quality, form error), process obscurity (melting pool, layer adhesion), and cost (especially for metals or composites), there are only a small number of AM-applied devices that are currently available either in the market or in many industry sectors above. The flexure mechanisms that are typically employed in nanopositioning applications can provide a sub-nanometer resolution motion; however, their current manufacturing methods (milling, electric discharge machining, water jet machining) not only limit complicated flexure mechanisms in 3D geometries but also prevent designers from challenging novel topology optimizations. AM can overcome those limitations of fabrication and material distribution. Furthermore, it can allow new design approaches to topology optimizations. This review presents current and future AM-based precision motion device applications. Here, both design and fabrication of flexure mechanisms applied with current AM technology and the potential of further developments were discussed.