Criteria for the Static Balancing of Compliant Mechanisms

Abstract

Compliant mechanisms achieve their mobility through the deformation of their members, this means that part of the energy transmitted from the input to the output of the mechanisms will be stored in the mechanisms as strain energy. This energy storage in some cases is not a desired characteristic and a way to solve this problem is by static balancing the behavior of the mechanisms. Here five criteria are presented that can be used in the static balancing of compliant mechanisms. The criteria are combined in a systematic way with design methods for compliant mechanisms as an exercise to find feasible combinations for the development of design methods for statically balanced compliant mechanisms. The feasibility of the combination between criteria and design methods for compliant mechanisms is demonstrated by using rigid body mechanisms with torsion springs, roughly emulating their compliant counterpart.