Printing low-voltage dielectric elastomer actuators

Printing low-voltage dielectric elastomer actuators

Inkjet printing of carbon black electrodes for dielectric elastomer actuators

Inkjet printing is an appealing technique to print electrodes for Dielectric Elastomer Actuators (DEAs). Here we present the preparation and ink-jet printing of a carbon black electrode mixture and characterise its properties. Carbon black has been used extensively in the past because it is very compliant; however, it has a high resistance and can be very dirty to work with. In this paper we sh...

Helical dielectric elastomer actuators

This paper presents a new type of contractile polymer-based electromechanical linear actuator. The device belongs to the class of dielectric elastomer actuators, which are typically capable of undergoing large deformations induced by an applied electric field. It is based on a novel helical configuration, suitable for the generation of electrically driven axial contractions and radial expansion...

On designing dielectric elastomer actuators

Subject to a voltage, a dielectric elastomer can deform substantially, making it a desirable material for actuators. Designing such an actuator, however, has been challenging due to nonlinear equations of state, as well as multiple modes of failure, parameters of design, and measures of performance. This paper explores these issues, using a spring-roll actuator as an example. We formulate the e...

Maximizing strain in miniaturized dielectric elastomer actuators

We present a theoretical model to optimise the unidirectional motion of a rigid object bonded to a miniaturized dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA), a configuration found for example in AMI’s haptic feedback devices, or in our tuneable RF phase shifter. Recent work has shown that unidirectional motion is maximized when the membrane is both anistropically prestretched and subjected to a dead loa...