Abstract
Compliant shape-preserving mechanisms fill a small niche within the established research field of compliant mechanisms. To date no report exists on a compliant shape-preserving ring, even though these mechanisms can give rise to a multitude of practical applications. They can essentially act as novel sealing mechanisms, compliant grippers or find use in medical applications. This paper presents three compliant shape-preserving rings that maintain their circular shape up to 99% for their full range-of-motion. The best design can expand in diameter by ≈ 45%. A prototype of a compliant shape-preserving ring was constructed from PETG (Polyethylene Terephtalate Glycol-modified) using fused-filament-fabrication. The experimental evaluation of this prototype showed a good agreement with the numerical model describing the design. A novel compliant scissor mechanism was obtained in the design process and this mechanism can prove useful in the design of other compliant shape-preserving mechanisms.
Highlights
Shape-preserving mechanisms, known as dilational mechanisms [1], are expanding mechanisms that preserve their shape upon expansion
A multistart optimization procedure was performed for a design with two, three and four scissor mechanisms
First the thickness of each compliant element in the prototype was measured with a caliper. This demonstrated a large discrepancy between the intended thickness of the flexures and the actual thickness
Summary
Shape-preserving mechanisms, known as dilational mechanisms [1], are expanding mechanisms that preserve their shape upon expansion. The first well known shape-preserving mechanism was designed by Hoberman [4], see Fig. 1 He invented a radially foldable linkage based on scissor mechanisms with angled links. This concept was later extended by You and Pellegrino [5] with the notion of the ‘generalized angulated element’. Symmetric examples of these elements can be used to construct closed loop foldable linkages with shape-preserving properties that can move through a large range-of-motion. Other approaches are based on scalable polygonal units, such as the work of Kiper et al [9,10] or more recently Broeren et al[1]
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