A novel hydraulic microactuator sealed by surface tension

Volder, Michaël De; Peirs, Jan; Reynaerts, Dominiek; Coosemans, Johan; Puers, Robert; Smal, Olivier; Raucent, Benoît

doi:10.1016/j.sna.2005.01.044

Cited by 26 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…The piston rod has a diameter of 0.5 mm and the piston has a diameter of 1 mm. In addition, Teflon and Iridium coatings have been applied on the piston in order to reduce stiction of Ga to the piston (De Volder et al 2005b;Przybyszewski 1971).…”

Section: Piston and Cylinder Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Measurements on similar piston-cylinder actuators showed actuation speeds of more than 1 m/s (De Volder et al 2008). On going research is investigating the stiction of Ga droplets to the piston rod (De Volder et al 2005b;Przybyszewski 1971). Teflon and Iridium coatings used during this research reduced stiction, but the problem is not resolved entirely yet.…”

Section: Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This paper presents a novel low friction seal that combines clearance seals (De Volder et al 2005a) with surface tension seals (De Volder et al 2005b;Porter 1960). Seals based on surface tension have been described in patents for precision flow measurement systems, the oldest one goes back to 1960 (Porter 1960).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These liquid O-ring resists the actuation pressure relying on surface tension forces. During prior research (De Volder et al 2005b), it was shown that in order to achieve high seal pressures, fluids with a high surface tension such as for instance Gallium (Ga) and Ga alloys should be used as seal fluid. Liquid seals yield no solid-solid contact between the seal and the moving piston.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, these seals are leak-tight. Nevertheless, measurements showed that these seals can typically resist pressures of only 100 kPa (De Volder et al 2005b), which is not sufficient to achieve high force densities. Therefore, we added clearance seals to the design.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

A hybrid surface tension seal for pneumatic and hydraulic microactuators

Volder

Reynaerts

2008

Microsyst Technol

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Recent research revealed that microactuators driven by pressurized fluids are able to generate high power and force densities at microscale. One of the main technological barriers in the development of these actuators is the fabrication low friction seals. This paper presents a novel scalable seal technology, which resists the actuation pressure relying on a combination of a clearance seal and a surface tension seal. This approach allows to seal pressures of more than 800 kPa without leakage. The seal is tested on an actuator with a bore of 0.8 mm 2 and a length of 13 mm, which was able to generate forces up to 0.32 N.

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Section: Piston and Cylinder Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

A hybrid surface tension seal for pneumatic and hydraulic microactuators

Volder

Reynaerts

2008

Microsyst Technol

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Modelling and Characterisation of an Ortho-Planar Micro-Valve

Smal

Dehez

Raucent

et al. 2006

IFIP International Federation for Information Processing

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The main difficulties encountered in the development of microscale fluidic pumping systems stem from the fact that these systems tend to comprise highly three-dimensional parts, which are incompatible with traditional microproduction technologies. Regardless of the type of pumping principle, most of the hydraulic systems contain valves and in particular a one-way valve. This paper presents the design and modelling of an ortho-planar oneway microvalve. The main advantages of such a valve are that it is very compact and can be made from a single flat piece of material. An analytical model of the spring deflection has been developed and compared to FEM. A prototype with a bore of 1.5 mm has been build using a micro EDM (electro discharge machining) machine and also tested.

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