Components for the Design of Lamina Emergent Mechanisms

Abstract

This paper presents components for lamina emergent mechanism (LEM) that can be used as building blocks to create mechanisms capable of more complex motion. As the name suggests, lamina emergent mechanisms are fabricated out of planar materials (the lamina) but their motion is out of that plane (emergent). Lamina emergent mechanisms can provide benefits that include reduced manufacturing costs and minimal volume when in the planar state. The compact initial state of LEMs is beneficial in reducing shipping costs, especially in volume critical applications. LEMs also exhibit the potential benefits of compliant mechanisms, namely increased precision, reduced weight, reduced wear, and part count reduction. Due to the deflection of their members, compliant mechanisms have the ability to store energy, and the resulting effect can be used to perform the function of springs. The LEM components presented in this paper include flexible segments, and mechanisms with behaviors similar to planar change-point four-bar and six-bar mechanisms, and spherical change-point mechanisms.