Manufacturing of Soft Dielectric Actuator Assemblies by Material Extrusion (MEX)

Description

Dielectric soft actuators use the Coulomb forces to generate motion. Their commercial avail-
ability, and hence, their technological relevance are still rather limited for different reasons.
In-depth material know-how in terms of electrical and mechanical behavior is required, ma-
terials have to be available in thin sheets, and the complicated fabrication is prone to errors.
In order to change this, the paper presents a novel soft dielectric assembly produced by Ma-
terial Extrusion (MEX). The soft dielectric actuator was 3D printed completely in using and
is fully functional without any further manufacturing steps. By incorporating a third material
into an FFF 3D printer, a soft dielectric actuator assembly in the form of a 3-finger gripper
was successfully 3D printed. Since the FFF machines are already quite widespread nowa-
days, our manufacturing approach offers the potential for user customized actuators, which
are easily accessible and comparably affordable. Only requirement is an FFF printer with at
least two independent printing nozzles.

Period	21 Nov 2024 → 22 Nov 2024
Event title	32. Leobener Kunststoffkolloquium - 32nd Leoben-Conference on Polymer Engineering and Science 'New Materials – New Perspectives'
Event type	Conference
Location	Leoben, AustriaShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International