Design and mechanism
In this research, the idea was to develop a 3D microhand-like device. This gripper can adjust the pressure within a cavity to allow it to close or open. The main part of the designed hydraulic 3D microgripper is created from a combination of a 150 µm PDMS-based membrane placed on the top of a cylindrical void and three columns, which are placed on the top of the membrane as fingers. The monolithic gripper is composed of the void, membrane and three fingers. Fig. 1a shows the design of a microgripper compatible with microfluidics. 1a.
The microgripper is designed with fingers on the membrane and opening/closing mechanism. (You can find more information atPDMS casting is used to create this microgripper. It can be matched with microfluidics. This image shows the channel connecting to the central vacuum. (b) Opening the fingers. (c) Closing the fingers.
As shown in Fig. 1. The fingers are placed on a membrane that can be deformed. By deforming the membrane’s shape into concave or convex, the three fingertips on the top can cause opening or closing. Thus, the internal pressure of the cavity should be higher than the exterior’s pressure to create convex membranes and lower for concave membranes. Based on the amount pressure, you can calculate the membrane’s deformation either numerically or analytically. This pressure difference determines the deformation mechanism. It is independent of membrane geometry. An approximate maximum displacement at the center of a circular membrane with the radius of a = LXEq. gives /2. (1)59.
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