scholarly journals Improvement of Elastomer Elongation and Output for Dielectric Elastomers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seiki Chiba ◽  
Mikio Waki ◽  
Shijie Zhu ◽  
Tonghuan Qu ◽  
Kazuhiro Ohyama

The need for light, high-strength, and artificial muscles is growing rapidly. A well-known type of artificial muscle meeting these requirements is the dielectric elastic (DE) type, which uses electrostatic force between electrodes. In hopes of utilizing, it practically for a variety of purposes, research and development is rapidly progressing all over the world as a technology for practical use. Much of the market demand is dominated by more output-focused applications such as DE power suits, DE motors, DE muscles for robots, and larger DE power systems. To meet these demands, the elasticity of the elastomer is very important. In this paper, we discussed what the important factors are for SS curves, viscoelasticity tests, etc. of the dielectric elastomer materials. Recent attempts have been also made to use new carbon foam materials such as SWCNTs and MWCNTs as electrodes for DEs. These electrodes bring the elastomers to a higher level of performance.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  

Dielectric Elastomers (DE) are currently being rapidly researched and developed all over the world as a technology that has begun to be incorporated at a practical level. As a product, game vibrators using DEs are already on the market in the United States and Europe. However, much of the market demand is dominated by more output-focused applications such as DE power suits, DE motors, DE muscles for robots, and larger DE power systems. Attempts have been made to improve elastomers and use new carbon foam materials such as single-walled carbon nano tubes (SWCNTs) and multi-walled carbon nano tubes (MWCNTs) as electrodes for DEs to meet these demands. This paper discusses these issues. Also, by reversing the movement of the DE, it is possible to generate electricity with high efficiency. By attaching the power generation system to the robot, which generates electricity from the movement of the robot, and charges the robot’s battery of the robot, it becomes possible to move the robot more efficiently. This is also discussed in this paper



2012 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 482-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuhiro Iwata ◽  
◽  
Koichi Suzumori ◽  
Shuichi Wakimoto ◽  

Research has recently been increasing on light weight and high-power robot hands that use artificial muscles. By applying ultra high strength PBO fiber sleeves to McKibben artificial muscles, new hydraulic artificial muscles have been developed in our laboratory. In this research, to apply this technology to a high-power robot easily, we have developed new, thin, hydraulic artificial muscles. While the hydraulic artificial muscles reported in our previous paper were driven by a maximum water pressure of 4 MPa, the newly developed thin muscles are driven by water with a maximum pressure of 7 MPa, resulting in very high force capability. This paper details the materials and structure of the new artificial muscles and reports the results of experiments on them. The muscles developed in this work are based on a sleeve and rubber tube design. The movements of the muscles depend on the angle of the knit of sleeve: an angle of less than 54.5 deg produces contraction while an angle of more than 54.5 deg produces extension. Based on this idea, we optimize, using FEM analysis, the angle of knit of the sleeve of each muscle. As a result, a high powered artificial muscle 21 mm in diameter which generates 8 kN of contraction force has been successfully developed.



2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-87
Author(s):  
Shinta Dwi Ardanari ◽  
Rynalto Mukiwihando

ABSTRACTShare of Indonesia's export value of natural rubber in the international market is almost always below Thailand, which is one of the competiting countries. The others countries began to become a threat to Indonesia because their exports share of natural rubber showed an increasing. This indicates that there is intense competition in the international market. As a country with the largest plantation area in the world, Indonesia should be superior. But this can be an opportunity to be able to compete in the world market so it is important to be managed more deeply so that it can create competitive advantages that can increase competitiveness. This study aims to determine the position of the competitiveness of natural rubber exports for the three countries of ITRC in the international market. The analytical method used is dynamic RCA. The results showed that all products of natural rubber coded HS 400110, 400121, 400122, 400129 and 400130 were experiencing a decline in growth in the export share of the three countries of ITRC : Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia, but the market demand conditions for these products were declining in that time period.



Author(s):  
Rajesh Kumar ◽  
Seetha Harilal ◽  
Abdullah G. Al-Sehemi ◽  
Githa Elizabeth Mathew ◽  
Simone Carradori ◽  
...  

: COVID-19, an epidemic that emerged in Wuhan, has become a pandemic affecting worldwide and is in a rapidly evolving condition. Day by day, the confirmed cases and deaths are increasing many folds. SARS-CoV-2 is a novel virus; therefore, limited data are available to curb the disease. Epidemiological approaches, isolation, quarantine, social distancing, lockdown, and curfew are being employed to halt the spread of the disease. Individual and joint efforts all over the world are producing a wealth of data and information which are expected to produce therapeutic strategies against COVID-19. Current research focuses on the utilization of antiviral drugs, repurposing strategies, vaccine development as well as basic to advanced research about the organism and the infection. The review focuses on the life cycle, targets, and possible therapeutic strategies, which can lead to further research and development of COVID-19 therapy.



2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Tian ◽  
Dan-Ni Yu ◽  
Yi-Ming Xu ◽  
Xu-Yin Ding ◽  
Zhou-Yu Zhang ◽  
...  

Background: Though there are many patents on silk, patents on sea silk are rare. Sea silk is one of the most coveted materials in the world, and the technology to make sea silk is at an extremely high risk of extinction. Unlike spider dragline silk and silkworm silk, this natural silk has been forgotten in the academic commune for millennia, though it has many fascinating properties: high strength, remarkable adhesion, extreme lightweight, and others. Method: Here we report that mussel-derived silk fibers can be fabricated by electrospinning. Instead of extracting proteins from byssus, we directly use the protein solution from alive blue mussels, which are intensely commercially used. The protein solution and the polyvinyl alcohol solution are mixed together to produce mussel-based silk fibers. Results: The mussel-based silk fibers have many special properties like high mechanical strength, remarkable super-contraction and good wetting properties. Conclusion: The electrospinning mussel-based silk fibers have the potential for use as a replacement for the rarest sea silk and as a new bio-inspired material with multi-functions.



Author(s):  
Zengmeng Zhang ◽  
Jinkai Che ◽  
Peipei Liu ◽  
Yunrui Jia ◽  
Yongjun Gong

Compared with pneumatic artificial muscles (PAMs), water hydraulic artificial muscles (WHAMs) have the advantages of high force/weight ratio, high stiffness, rapid response speed, large operating pressure range, low working noise, etc. Although the physical models of PAMs have been widely studied, the model of WHAMs still need to be researched for the different structure parameters and work conditions between PAMs and WHAMs. Therefore, the geometry and the material properties need to be considered in models, including the wall thickness of rubber tube, the geometry of ends, the elastic force of rubber tube, the elongation of fibers, and the friction among fiber strands. WHAMs with different wall thickness and fiber materials were manufactured, and static characteristic experiments were performed when the actuator is static and fixed on both ends, which reflects the relationship between contraction force and pressure under the different contraction ratio. The deviations between theoretical values and experimental results were analyzed to investigate the effect of each physical factor on the modified physical model accuracy at different operating pressures. The results show the relative error of the modified physical model was 7.1% and the relative error of the ideal model was 17.4%. When contraction ratio is below 10% and operating pressure is 4 MPa, the wall thickness of rubber tube was the strongest factor on the accuracy of modified model. When the WHAM contraction ratio from 3% to 20%, the relative error between the modified physical model and the experimental data was within ±10%. Considering the various physical factors, the accuracy of the modified physical model of WHAM is improved, which lays a foundation of non-linear control of the high-strength, tightly fiber-braided and thick-walled WHAMs.



Author(s):  
Manuel-Angel Gonzalez-Chapa ◽  
Jose-Ramon Vega-Galaz

Combined Heat and Power systems have been used all around the world due to their effective and viable way of transforming energy from fossil fuel. Indeed, the advantage of lower greenhouse gas emissions compared to those obtained in conventional power or conventional heat generation systems have been an important factor giving CHP systems an advantage over these conventional ones. Certainly CHP has been, and continues to be, a good practice while renewable technologies become more economically. While these technologies emerge it is important to continue minimizing these greenhouse gas emissions from conventional and CHP units as much as possible. This paper deals with the fuel optimization of power, heat and CHP systems including emissions and ambient conditions constraints. Ambient conditions variations are evaluated before solving the optimization and then introduced to the problem to consider their effects.



2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (S1) ◽  
pp. 25-31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrico Baraldi ◽  
Olof Lindahl ◽  
Miloje Savic ◽  
David Findlay ◽  
Christine Årdal

The World Health Organization (WHO) has published a global priority list of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to guide research and development (R&D) of new antibiotics. Every pathogen on this list requires R&D activity, but some are more attractive for private sector investments, as evidenced by the current antibacterial pipeline. A “pipeline coordinator” is a governmental/non-profit organization that closely tracks the antibacterial pipeline and actively supports R&D across all priority pathogens employing new financing tools.



Soft Matter ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Mansard

The physics of soft matter can contribute to the revolution in robotics and medical prostheses.These two fields requires the development of artificial muscles with behavior close to the biologicalmuscle. Today,...



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