16. Wildcard Week¶
Assignment¶
- Design and produce something with a digital process (incorporating computer aided design and manufacturing) not covered in another assignment, documenting the requirements that your assignment meets, and including everything necessary to reproduce it. Possibilities include but are not limited to wildcard week examples.
Learning outcomes¶
Demonstrate workflows used in the chosen process Select and apply suitable processes (and materials) to do your assignment.
Basic Idea¶
This week, I tried to something new to me but it’s not so complicated. Then, I found the flexure really interesting because it makes more function than I imagined.
Flexure Mechanism¶
What is flexure mechanism anyway?
I asked AI about it.
A flexure mechanism, also known as a compliant mechanism, is a type of mechanical linkage that relies on the elastic deformation of a structure to provide motion. Instead of using traditional joints like bearings or hinges, flexures use thin, resilient elements that bend and deform under load to achieve motion. This approach eliminates friction, wear, and backlash, making flexure mechanisms highly suitable for applications requiring precision and repeatability.
So objects(or a object) can move by elastic deformation(flexure mechanism) and it doesn’t have to use another material such as joint or hinge.
As it’s movement makes object move, it has less friction and s
Flexure Test¶
For knowing what is flexure mechanism, I checked material’s elastic deformation.
There are several bars from 1mm to 5.0mm(length is 70mm) and interval is as follows:
| interval | (mm) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1.5 | 1.4 | 1.3 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.0 |
I checked how flexure works in each width.
Depth from 5mm to 3mm don’t move a lot.
From 2mm depth it gets easy to move and width from 1.5mm is move easily.
First Try¶
After checking the flexure, I made a small flexure mechanism thing by 3D printing
throgh watching the reference video.
I tested the flexure and movement.
Second Try¶
Next step is making something “tool” and made a buckle which might be used for my final project too(?).
A buckle part has the flexure function and design was referred the pinch from the video of Compliant mechanism.
Pinch part of it was used 2 circles.
Stoppers should be 2, one for preventing going through and the other for preventing from going back.
However, first I didn’t put the one for going back,
There is a rectangle box with a hole for pinch part.
Then I found stopper has to have both side, and I put them.
Soft Robotics¶
This time, I tested another possibility of using their characteristics of materials, soft robotics.
I got the mold idea from graduates such as follows.
- Kawahara san’s page
- Adrian’s page
I made the mold design by fusion360
3D mold’s filament is PLA.
First I made deeper one, but it seemed too deep and made a bit shallow one too.
Then casting them.
Casting material is Eco flex 00-30 as it is soft material.
The bottom part was also made at the same time.
After eco flex is fixing(minimum 4 hours), I took them out from the molding.
Then star parts are put on the bottom part and glued with Eco-flex.
They were cut after completely glued and fixed.
Test¶
I used at first arduino UNO,DC pump and MOSFET to control blowing and absorbing the air.
However it didn’t work what I wanted.
So it was changed to the system without using Arduino Uno but connected to DC pump from the power directly and
control by the button, stop and go the air.
Research¶
I learned what is “flexure mechanism” through watching several videos. What I found interesting is that same material such as plastic can be used as a spring, not just an object by changing the thickness or shapes.
For soft robotics, I’ve learnt the thickness difference is really important for blowing and it is needed a certain thickness for each material.(If it is too thin, air goes only weak part)
Files¶
Useful links¶
Soft Robotics
- Jun Kawahara san’s page
- Adrian Torres’ page