Development of a 2-degree-of-freedom decoupled flexural mechanism for micro/nanomachining

Abstract

In this article, a novel decoupled two-degree-of-freedom parallel flexural mechanism is proposed for precision engineering, such as micro/nanomeasuring and machining. The two-degree-of-freedom flexural mechanism is developed with the parallel-kinematic constraint map method to achieve totally geometric decoupling and the actuator isolation. By means of the matrix which is based on compliance modeling method, the compliance matrix of the flexural mechanism has been analytically derived and then the obtained theoretical results are verified by the finite element analysis. Experiment tests are conducted to investigate the practical performances of the developed two-degree-of-freedom flexural mechanism. The experimental results show that the maximum stroke along z-axis and y-stroke are 10.82 and 11.84 µm, respectively, and the corresponding maximum couplings in y-axis and z-axis directions are less than 3%. The first obtained resonant frequencies in the two moving directions are 420 and 450 Hz through the method of swept excitations, respectively.