IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/epw/ejeng0/v5y2020i10id62174.html

4D Printing and Characterization of Shape Memory Polymer (SMP) Based Smart Gripper

Author

Listed:
  • Francis Irungu Maina
  • Nahashon Osinde
  • Japheth Ka’pesha Odira
  • Patrick Kariuki Wanjiru
  • Margaret Wanjiku Mwangi

Abstract

Shape Memory Polymer (SMP) is stimuli-responsive material with the ability to recover the original shape from a deformation upon triggering by an appropriate stimulus like heat, light, and electricity. The shape recovery properties can be harnessed through 4D printing of self-recoverable functional structures and made usable in fields like medicine and robotics. To investigate the recovery properties, best printing parameters and optimal sizes, 4D reconfigurable gripper designed in CAD was printed in Ultimaker 2 Printer. Different stencils were made in varying printing parameters of temperature, infill, speed and time. Analysis for the stencils proved best print quality at a temperature of 195 °C and nozzle retract speed of 40mm/s. Shape recovery characterization was done on MATLAB. A printing temperature of 203 °C, infill density of 38% and printing speed of 40 mm/s gave the gripper with the best print quality. Characterization of the varying performances of the four grippers was attributed to the different infill percentages. The lower the infill, the higher the recovery rate due to the low stiffness of the gripper. The best recovery rate of 96.93% was associated with an optimal printing temperature of 203 °C.

Suggested Citation

  • Francis Irungu Maina & Nahashon Osinde & Japheth Ka’pesha Odira & Patrick Kariuki Wanjiru & Margaret Wanjiku Mwangi, 2020. "4D Printing and Characterization of Shape Memory Polymer (SMP) Based Smart Gripper," European Journal of Engineering and Technology Research, European Open Science, vol. 5(10), pages 1204-1211, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:epw:ejeng0:v:5:y:2020:i:10:id:62174
    DOI: 10.24018/ejeng.2020.5.10.2174
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://eu-opensci.org/index.php/ejeng/article/view/62174
    File Function: Abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://eu-opensci.org/index.php/ejeng/article/download/62174/12510
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.24018/ejeng.2020.5.10.2174?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:epw:ejeng0:v:5:y:2020:i:10:id:62174. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://eu-opensci.org/index.php/ejeng .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.