scholarly journals Improving Endurance of Pneumatic Linear Peristaltic Actuators

Actuators ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 76
Author(s):  
João Falcão Carneiro ◽  
João Bravo Pinto ◽  
Fernando Gomes de Almeida ◽  
Miranda Fateri

Pneumatic linear peristaltic actuators can offer some potential advantages when compared with conventional ones. Low cost, virtually unlimited stroke and easy implementation of curved motion profiles are among those benefits. On the downside, these actuators suffer high mechanical stress, which leads to short endurance and increased leakage between chambers during the actuator lifetime. This paper contributes to this field by experimentally characterizing the life behavior of a prototype of a linear pneumatic peristaltic actuator where force—instead of displacement—between rollers is imposed. It is shown that the use of an imposed force configuration has a significant impact in the actuator life time. In fact, the proposed actuator configuration has an average endurance of up to 250% higher than the one previously presented in the literature. This result was obtained while maintaining almost zero leakage between chambers, despite the hose wear throughout the service life. Finally, this paper explores the use of different hose geometries to increase the actuator life span. To this end, a preliminary study is presented where two different 3D printed hose cross sections are tested and compared with a circular one.

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihai Machedon-Pisu ◽  
Paul Nicolae Borza

As the title suggests, the sustainability of personal electric vehicles is in question. In terms of life span, range, comfort, and safety, electric vehicles, such as e-cars and e-buses, are much better than personal electric vehicles, such as e-bikes. However, electric vehicles present greater costs and increased energy consumption. Also, the impact on environment, health, and fitness is more negative than that of personal electric vehicles. Since transportation vehicles can benefit from hybrid electric storage solutions, we address the following question: Is it possible to reach a compromise between sustainability and technology constraints by implementing a low-cost hybrid personal electric vehicle with improved life span and range that is also green? Our methodology consists of life cycle assessment and performance analyses tackling the facets of the sustainability challenges (economy, society, and environment) and limitations of the electric storage solutions (dependent on technology and application) presented herein. The hybrid electric storage system of the proposed hybrid e-bike is made of batteries, supercapacitors, and corresponding power electronics, allowing the optimal control of power flows between the system’s components and application’s actuators. Our hybrid e-bike costs less than a normal e-bike (half or less), does not depend on battery operation for short periods of time (a few seconds), has better autonomy than most personal electric vehicles (more than 60 km), has a greater life span (a few years more than a normal e-bike), has better energy efficiency (more than 90%), and is much cleaner due to the reduced number of batteries replaced per life time (one instead of two or three).


Information ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 76 ◽  
Author(s):  
João Falcão Carneiro ◽  
João Bravo Pinto ◽  
Fernando Gomes de Almeida ◽  
Miranda Fateri

Pneumatic linear peristaltic actuators present several potential advantages over conventional ones such as low cost, virtually unlimited stroke, and an easy implementation of curved motion profiles. However, the body of this type of actuators also suffers from high mechanical stress, leading to a decrease in the hose wall thickness, which leads to increased leakages between chambers. One way to potentially minimize this problem is to impose the force instead of the displacement between rollers. This paper describes the model and experimental characteristics of a new prototype of a linear pneumatic peristaltic actuator where either the force or the displacement between rollers can be imposed. Namely, experimental friction characteristics and the leakage between chambers are determined in the configuration where the force between rollers is imposed. Lastly, a third-order linear model is experimentally identified. Therefore, this study establishes the basis for future research focused on the service life and leakage obtained whenever the force between rollers is imposed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ester Drastíková ◽  
Klára Konderlová ◽  
Andrea Šebestová ◽  
Daniel Baron ◽  
Petra Švecová ◽  
...  

AbstractThe aim of our work was to develop a low-cost, portable device for the fast and easy determination of total protein content by using PDMS-based lab-in-a-syringe technology with removal of 3D-printed channels. We proposed two designs with a one-step PDMS curing and a two-step PDMS-curing fabrication procedure. The one-step PDMS microdevices were found to be the best in the view of preparation, repeatability, and stability of the reagent. This design was then applied for the determination of total protein content in biomedical products using the Bradford assay.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Merel van der Stelt ◽  
Martin P. Grobusch ◽  
Abdul R. Koroma ◽  
Marco Papenburg ◽  
Ismaila Kebbie ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 274-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingang Che ◽  
Lei Chen ◽  
Zi-Han Guo ◽  
Shuaiqun Wang ◽  
Aorigele

Background: Identification of drug-target interaction is essential in drug discovery. It is beneficial to predict unexpected therapeutic or adverse side effects of drugs. To date, several computational methods have been proposed to predict drug-target interactions because they are prompt and low-cost compared with traditional wet experiments. Methods: In this study, we investigated this problem in a different way. According to KEGG, drugs were classified into several groups based on their target proteins. A multi-label classification model was presented to assign drugs into correct target groups. To make full use of the known drug properties, five networks were constructed, each of which represented drug associations in one property. A powerful network embedding method, Mashup, was adopted to extract drug features from above-mentioned networks, based on which several machine learning algorithms, including RAndom k-labELsets (RAKEL) algorithm, Label Powerset (LP) algorithm and Support Vector Machine (SVM), were used to build the classification model. Results and Conclusion: Tenfold cross-validation yielded the accuracy of 0.839, exact match of 0.816 and hamming loss of 0.037, indicating good performance of the model. The contribution of each network was also analyzed. Furthermore, the network model with multiple networks was found to be superior to the one with a single network and classic model, indicating the superiority of the proposed model.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 1977
Author(s):  
Ricardo Oliveira ◽  
Liliana M. Sousa ◽  
Ana M. Rocha ◽  
Rogério Nogueira ◽  
Lúcia Bilro

In this work, we demonstrate for the first time the capability to inscribe long-period gratings (LPGs) with UV radiation using simple and low cost amplitude masks fabricated with a consumer grade 3D printer. The spectrum obtained for a grating with 690 µm period and 38 mm length presented good quality, showing sharp resonances (i.e., 3 dB bandwidth < 3 nm), low out-of-band loss (~0.2 dB), and dip losses up to 18 dB. Furthermore, the capability to select the resonance wavelength has been demonstrated using different amplitude mask periods. The customization of the masks makes it possible to fabricate gratings with complex structures. Additionally, the simplicity in 3D printing an amplitude mask solves the problem of the lack of amplitude masks on the market and avoids the use of high resolution motorized stages, as is the case of the point-by-point technique. Finally, the 3D printed masks were also used to induce LPGs using the mechanical pressing method. Due to the better resolution of these masks compared to ones described on the state of the art, we were able to induce gratings with higher quality, such as low out-of-band loss (0.6 dB), reduced spectral ripples, and narrow bandwidths (~3 nm).


HardwareX ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. e00214
Author(s):  
David T. McCarthy ◽  
Baiqian Shi ◽  
Miao Wang ◽  
Stephen Catsamas
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  

Author(s):  
Romain Nicot ◽  
Edwige Hurteloup ◽  
Sébastien Joachim ◽  
Charles Druelle ◽  
Jean-Marc Levaillant

Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 2518
Author(s):  
Nunzio Cennamo ◽  
Lorena Saitta ◽  
Claudio Tosto ◽  
Francesco Arcadio ◽  
Luigi Zeni ◽  
...  

In this work, a novel approach to realize a plasmonic sensor is presented. The proposed optical sensor device is designed, manufactured, and experimentally tested. Two photo-curable resins are used to 3D print a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor. Both numerical and experimental analyses are presented in the paper. The numerical and experimental results confirm that the 3D printed SPR sensor presents performances, in term of figure of merit (FOM), very similar to other SPR sensors made using plastic optical fibers (POFs). For the 3D printed sensor, the measured FOM is 13.6 versus 13.4 for the SPR-POF configuration. The cost analysis shows that the 3D printed SPR sensor can be manufactured at low cost (∼15 €) that is competitive with traditional sensors. The approach presented here allows to realize an innovative SPR sensor showing low-cost, 3D-printing manufacturing free design and the feasibility to be integrated with other optical devices on the same plastic planar support, thus opening undisclosed future for the optical sensor systems.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 396-397
Author(s):  
Heiner Martin ◽  
Josephine Wittmüß ◽  
Thomas Mittlmeier ◽  
Niels Grabow

AbstractThe investigation of matching of endoprosthesis tibial components to the bone cross section is of interest for the manufacturer as well as for the surgeon. On the one hand, a systemic design of the prosthesis and the assortment is possible, on the other hand, a better matching implantation is enabled on the basis of experience of this study. CT sections were segmented manually using a CAD system and fitted by spline functions, then superseded with cross sections of the tibial component of a modified Hintermann H3 prosthesis. The principal moments of inertia, the direction of the principal axes and the area of the section were evaluated. Based on the relative differences of the principal moments of inertia, recommendations for application of the different prosthesis size and its selection with the surgery can be made.


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