Pneumatic Microactuator of the future

This is one of the remarkable results of my thesis project at the university of K.U.Leuven Belgium. It is a MEMS pneumatic and hydraulic actuator entirely built out of SU-8 polymers. The gray object on the back is a tweezers head. In this video a strike test is being carried out. At first the pressure is brought to 1 bar and the piston moves out already. In the next step the pressure is raised to 1,5 bar. The result is remarkable: Already at 1.5 bar a full strike can be obtained!

Remark: The tubes for the movement in the reverse direction are already glued here, but not yet connected to the pressurized air. Connecting these couldn't be a problem however.

The research is copyright protected. Do not try to reproduce without permission of the competent K.U.Leuven personnel.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• micro
• hydraulic
• actuator
• pneumatic
• mems
• micromachining
• SU-8
• su8
• polymer
• novel
• future