PolyJet-Printed Bellows Actuators: Design, Structural Optimization, and Experimental Investigation

Gabriel Dämmer; Sven Gablenz; Alexander Hildebrandt; Zoltan Major

doi:10.3389/frobt.2019.00034

PolyJet-Printed Bellows Actuators: Design, Structural Optimization, and Experimental Investigation

Front Robot AI. 2019 May 14:6:34. doi: 10.3389/frobt.2019.00034. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Gabriel Dämmer^{1

2}, Sven Gablenz², Alexander Hildebrandt², Zoltan Major¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Polymer Product Engineering, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Linz, Austria.
² Advanced Mechatronic Systems, Festo AG & Co. KG, Esslingen am Neckar, Germany.

Abstract

Pneumatic bellows actuators are exceptionally suitable for Additive Manufacturing (AM) as the required geometrical complexity can easily be obtained and their functionality is not affected by rough surfaces and small dimensional accuracy. This paper is an extended version of a previously published contribution to the RoboSoft2018 conference in Livorno, Italy. The original paper (Dämmer et al., 2018) contains a simulation-driven design approach as well as experimental investigations of the structural and fatigue behavior of pneumatic multi-material PolyJet™ bellows actuators. This extended version is enhanced with investigations on the relaxation behavior of PolyJet bellows actuators. The presented results are useful for researchers and engineers considering the application of PolyJet bellows actuators for pneumatic robots.

Keywords: additive manufacturing; design for additive manufacturing (DfAM); multi-material 3D printing; pneumatic actuator; pneumatic robot; printed robotics; structural optimization; visco-elastic.