Reduction of Stress in Plastic Compliant Mechanisms by Introducing Metallic Reinforcement

Abstract

A method is provided and validated for redesigning compliant segments to improve their fatigue, creep, and stress relaxation performance. The method reduces the bending stress in the polymer portion of the compliant segment without the need for overall mechanism redesign, by introducing metallic reinforcement and by matching the force-deflection response of the redesigned segment to that of the baseline segment. An example redesign case study is presented and validated with experimental testing using a unique deflection testing device designed for fixed-free compliant mechanisms. This vein of research is undertaken using metallic reinforcement (inserts) toward the development of a new class of compliant mechanisms with significantly greater performance, particularly insofar as the problems of fatigue and creep are concerned.

Meeting Name

ASME 2017 International Design Engineering Technical Conferences and Computers and Information in Engineering Conference, IDETC/CIE 2017 (2017: Aug. 6-9, Cleveland, OH)

Department(s)

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Keywords and Phrases

Creep; Design; Mechanisms; Reinforcement; Stress relaxation; Bending stress; Experimental testing; Force deflection response; Metallic reinforcements; Testing device; Compliant mechanisms

International Standard Book Number (ISBN)

978-0-7918-5817-2

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2017 American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Aug 2017

Link to Full Text

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