Development of a precision experimental setup for a flexure based micro-motion amplifier

Abstract

Miniaturization has inherited the necessity of micro-mechanism. Micro-motion devices are expected to deliver high positioning accuracy and potentially have wide applications in the industry such as development of Micro factories. A flexure based joint-less pantograph is designed as a mechanical amplifier to achieve a geometric amplification of input displacement for a linear positioning system. This arrangement is useful for achieving motion amplification for a precision actuator Piezo actuator. Design and manufacturing of such system is a challenging task and the important aspect of DFMA is considered. Guidelines are suggested for researchers who intend to develop similar setups. Macro scale Wire Electric Discharge Machine (WEDM) is used for manufacturing micro-mechanism. Concept ‘Do not fight with gravity’ is implemented in setup development. All constraints applied in simulation, are applied on the mechanism to replicate directional motion in the setup developed. The performance of mechanism was observed under a vision based system. Setup developed has been successfully used for the performance evaluation of compliant pantograph.