Design, Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Linear XY Compliant Mechanisms for Precision Motion Applications
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1
D Y Patil International University Pune
2
Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering Pune
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ABSTRACT
Compliant mechanisms have gained significant importance in precision engineering due to their ability to achieve smooth and accurate motion through elastic deformation without conventional joints. This study presents the design, numerical analysis, and experimental validation of linear and linear XY compliant mechanisms intended for precision motion applications, particularly in biomedical scanning systems. Various compliant mechanism configurations are developed using parallel beam arrangements with different geometric parameters such as beam thickness and effective beam length, resulting in 1.5-turn and 2-turn mechanisms. Numerical investigations are carried out using finite element analysis to evaluate displacement, stress, and stiffness characteristics under varying actuation forces. PLA material is considered to study the influence of material properties on performance. The results indicate that PLA exhibits significantly higher compliance and achieves the required range of motion (2–4 mm) with substantially lower actuation forces compared to metallic materials. A maximum displacement of up to 12.37 mm is achieved with optimized geometric parameters while maintaining stresses within permissible limits. Experimental validation of the selected PLA-based XY compliant mechanism shows good agreement with numerical results, with a maximum deviation of 1.13%. The study demonstrates that properly designed PLA-based compliant mechanisms are highly suitable for low-force, high-precision applications such as biomedical scanning and micro-positioning systems.