Development of a Compact 1-D Micromanipulator with Flexure Manufactured Using Rapid Prototyping

Development of a Compact 1-D Micromanipulator with Flexure Manufactured Using Rapid Prototyping

Su Zhao, Yan Naing Aye, Cheng Yap Shee, Wei Tech Ang
Copyright: © 2012 |Pages: 11
DOI: 10.4018/ijimr.2012040104
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Abstract

Presented is the design and initial experimental results of a compact 1-D micromanipulator. The presented manipulator is a piezoelectric actuator based complaint mechanism with a compact translational flexure manufactured using rapid prototyping. Rapid prototyping allows complicated designs with low manufacturing costs. Analytical and Finite Element (FE) models for designing the flexure are presented. The simulation results are compared with experiments conducted on a prototype. Nonlinear stiffness is measured and evaluated. The importance of pre-loading force is investigated. Trajectory tracking tests at different frequencies are performed on the manipulator. The maximum and root mean square errors are analyzed.
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Flexure Design

Figure 1 shows the schematic design of the proposed translational flexure joint. The center column is linked to the two supporting columns on the side by leaf type springs, the thin bars, with length L, thickness t and width w. Due to the symmetrical design, when a force F is applied to the center column, the leaves will deflect and allow the center column to move in a pure translational mode.

Figure 1.

Schematic design of the flexure

ijimr.2012040104.f01

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