TY - CONF

T1 - Manufacturing of Soft Dielectric Actuator Assemblies by Material Extrusion (MEX)

AU - Raguz, Ivan

AU - Berer, Michael

AU - Beier, Philipp

AU - Schlögl, Sandra

AU - Brancart, Joost

AU - Vanderborght, Bram

AU - Holzer, Clemens

PY - 2024/11/21

Y1 - 2024/11/21

N2 - 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 andis fully functional without any further manufacturing steps. By incorporating a third materialinto an FFF 3D printer, a soft dielectric actuator assembly in the form of a 3-finger gripperwas successfully 3D printed. Since the FFF machines are already quite widespread nowa-days, our manufacturing approach offers the potential for user customized actuators, whichare easily accessible and comparably affordable. Only requirement is an FFF printer with atleast two independent printing nozzles.

AB - 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 andis fully functional without any further manufacturing steps. By incorporating a third materialinto an FFF 3D printer, a soft dielectric actuator assembly in the form of a 3-finger gripperwas successfully 3D printed. Since the FFF machines are already quite widespread nowa-days, our manufacturing approach offers the potential for user customized actuators, whichare easily accessible and comparably affordable. Only requirement is an FFF printer with atleast two independent printing nozzles.

KW - Material extrusion (MEX)

KW - Fused filament fabrication (FFF)

KW - Dielectric Elastomer Actuator

M3 - Paper

SP - 143

EP - 151

T2 - 32. Leobener Kunststoffkolloquium - 32nd Leoben-Conference on Polymer Engineering and Science 'New Materials – New Perspectives'

Y2 - 21 November 2024 through 22 November 2024

ER -