Abstract
We report on the design and the modeling of a three-dimensional (3D) printed flexure-based actuation mechanism for robotic microtweezers, the main body of which is a single piece of nylon. Our design aims to fill a void in sample manipulation between two classes of widely used instruments: nano-scale and macro-scale robotic manipulators. The key component is a uniquely designed cam flexure system, which linearly translates the bending of a piezoelectric bimorph actuator into angular displacement. The 3D printing made it possible to realize the fabrication of the cam with a specifically calculated curve, which would otherwise be costly using conventional milling techniques. We first characterized 3D printed nylon by studying sets of simple cantilevers, which provided fundamental characteristics that could be used for further designs. The finite element method analysis based on the obtained material data matched well with the experimental data. The tweezers showed angular displacement from 0° to 10° linearly to the deflection of the piezo actuator (0–1.74 mm) with the linearity error of 0.1°. Resonant frequency of the system with/without working tweezer tips was discovered as 101 Hz and 127 Hz, respectively. Our design provides simple and low-cost construction of a versatile manipulator system for samples in the micro/meso-scale (0.1–1 mm).
Highlights
We propose the use of commercially available three-dimensional (3D) printing-based fabrication to create an actuation mechanism that fills the void in sample manipulation between two classes of widely used bioinstruments, nano-scale instruments and macro-scale instruments
Common techniques of nanoscale manipulation include: atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based nanomanipulation systems [1,2,3] and MEMS microgrippers [4,5,6], which rely on the use of lithography-based micromachined cantilevers or manipulators
The use of 3D printing for flexure-based actuation is a new concept we proposed in our recent study, which reduces material costs and scrap by omitting extensive machining but allows for the design of application-oriented, versatile actuation mechanisms
Summary
We propose the use of commercially available three-dimensional (3D) printing-based fabrication to create an actuation mechanism that fills the void in sample manipulation between two classes of widely used bioinstruments, nano-scale instruments and macro-scale instruments. We demonstrate that the technology of 3D printing is a suitable method to fabricate the mechanical manipulator that occupies the promising area that lies between micromachining and precision machining. Arai et al demonstrated the capability of a finger-like piezo-electric actuated hybrid micromanipulator for 3D manipulation of microscopic objects by picking up and moving a micro-ball of
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