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The interesting thing about the pliers is that the service life could be long because there are no moving parts and the flexible part is working well within it's elastic limit so it's response should remain constant. I'm used to testing things to determine their service life and this feels like it would cope with a very high number of operating cycles.
The clamp force isn't enough to do a mechanical job like tightening a nut, but it does have a soft pinch force like you can get with your fingers. Someone who I showed it to was very interested in it as a potential application where they were trying to automate strawberry picking which needs a damage-free grip. So-called "soft robotics" is a new area where robots become less mechanical but have more of a human touch and maybe this would be appropriate for that.
I did try some alternative lattice shapes, but this very regular pattern seemed to work best. It's something that I probably need to return to and see what changes I could make. Simulation of this is quite difficult because it's a non-linear material behaviour, so trial and error 3D printing different patterns is probably the best option to develop the idea further. At least 3D printing makes that easier to do!
Someone who I showed it to was very interested in it as a potential application where they were trying to automate strawberry picking which needs a damage-free grip. So-called "soft robotics" is a new area where robots become less mechanical but have more of a human touch and maybe this would be appropriate for that.
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Yes, I could see the use for such applications with fragile materials indeed: biological samples, glass bottles,... I hadn't thought of that.
For some applications, maybe you could even print these pliers out of one material, and by just varying the geometry get both the desired stiffness and softness where needed? For example, by adding a similar pattern at the clamps, it would get a softer grip around the sample, like rubber?
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SteveCox3D 85
Thanks for the comments @geert_2
The interesting thing about the pliers is that the service life could be long because there are no moving parts and the flexible part is working well within it's elastic limit so it's response should remain constant. I'm used to testing things to determine their service life and this feels like it would cope with a very high number of operating cycles.
The clamp force isn't enough to do a mechanical job like tightening a nut, but it does have a soft pinch force like you can get with your fingers. Someone who I showed it to was very interested in it as a potential application where they were trying to automate strawberry picking which needs a damage-free grip. So-called "soft robotics" is a new area where robots become less mechanical but have more of a human touch and maybe this would be appropriate for that.
I did try some alternative lattice shapes, but this very regular pattern seemed to work best. It's something that I probably need to return to and see what changes I could make. Simulation of this is quite difficult because it's a non-linear material behaviour, so trial and error 3D printing different patterns is probably the best option to develop the idea further. At least 3D printing makes that easier to do!
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geert_2 558
Yes, I could see the use for such applications with fragile materials indeed: biological samples, glass bottles,... I hadn't thought of that.
For some applications, maybe you could even print these pliers out of one material, and by just varying the geometry get both the desired stiffness and softness where needed? For example, by adding a similar pattern at the clamps, it would get a softer grip around the sample, like rubber?
Interesting field of research.
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