Spatial Compliance Modeling and Optimization of a Translational Joint Using Corrugated Flexure Units

Abstract

Compliant mechanisms with corrugated flexure (CF) units have been attracting increasing attention due to their large range of motion. However, most research has considered in-plane compliance, whereas the out-of-plane performance, which affects the load-carrying ability, has seldom been studied. In this paper, an analytical model for the spatial compliance of a CF translational joint is formulated. The in-plane compliance of the CF translational joint is modeled by the Maxwell–Mohr method and compliance matrix method. For the out-of-plane compliance, a modification method is proposed for the closed-form analytical solution based on a finite element analysis with shell elements. The CF translational joint is further optimized to achieve a high in-plane and out-of-plane off-axis stiffness ratio, low first-order natural frequency, and large range of motion. Experiments were conducted to verify the effectiveness of the method.

Keywords: compliant mechanism, corrugated flexure translation joint, spatial stiffness, finite element analysis