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Machines
Special Issues
Advances in Flexible Mechanisms
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Advances in Flexible Mechanisms

A special issue of Machines (ISSN 2075-1702). This special issue belongs to the section "Robotics, Mechatronics and Intelligent Machines".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2022) | Viewed by 3255

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Rosario Sinatra

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, Via Santa Sofia 64, 95125 Catania, Italy
Interests: applied mechanics; mechatronics; robotics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Pietro Davide Maddio

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture (DICAR), University of Catania, 95125 Catania, Italy
Interests: mechatronics; deployable reflectors; robotics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Flexible mechanisms cover a large area of applications including aerospace, robotics, and bioengineering. Recently, compliant mechanisms have attracted the interest of researchers, particularly for their simplicity of manufacture and their high accuracy. They represent flexible mechanisms capable of transferring an input displacement or force to another point thanks to the elastic body deformation. Their main advantage is the absence of joints, which gives them the advantages of increased reliability and precision, combined with reduced wear and the lack of need for lubrication. Moreover, for the above-mentioned features, they are also perfectly suitable for micro- and nano-engineering applications (MEMS and NEMS), especially in the field of bioengineering.

This Special Issue aims to collect research papers, short communications, and review articles that focus on the design, characterization, and simulation of flexible mechanisms for various applications. Special (but not only) attention will be paid to the compliant mechanisms in the field of aerospace, as, for example, deployable reflectors.

Prof. Dr. Rosario Sinatra
Dr. Pietro Davide Maddio
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Machines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • compliant mechanisms
  • flexible mechanisms
  • MEMS
  • deployable structures
  • aerospace
  • surgical robots

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

12 pages, 14711 KiB  
Communication
Gravity-Compensation Design Approaches for Flexure-Pivot Time Bases
by Etienne Thalmann, Quentin Gubler and Simon Henein
Machines 2022, 10(7), 580; https://doi.org/10.3390/machines10070580 - 18 Jul 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2540
Abstract
While flexure time bases have gained significant traction in the watchmaking industry thanks to their high quality factor and monolithic design, maintaining a stable frequency in varying orientations of wrist watches with respect to gravity remains a significant challenge. This results from the [...] Read more.
While flexure time bases have gained significant traction in the watchmaking industry thanks to their high quality factor and monolithic design, maintaining a stable frequency in varying orientations of wrist watches with respect to gravity remains a significant challenge. This results from the fact that the flexures play two roles simultaneously: guiding the oscillating mass along a one-degree-of-freedom pivotal motion, and providing the oscillator’s elastic restoring force. Indeed, varying stress-stiffening effects induced by the varying direction of the weight of the oscillating mass affect the pivot angular stiffness, which impacts its oscillating frequency. In order to address this issue, two design approaches are presented which, when combined, allow to reach the strict chronometric standards of mechanical watches. Firstly, the frequency differences for all vertical positions (i.e., gravity orthogonal to the rotation axis) are mitigated by designing architectures with reduced parasitic center shift, or by offsetting the center of mass (COM) along their axis of symmetry, or both. Secondly, the frequency differences between vertical and horizontal positions (i.e., gravity parallel to the rotation axis) are reduced by offsetting the COM along the rotation axis. The implementation and effectiveness of these approaches are demonstrated by numeric simulations, as well as by experimental measurements performed on watch-scale silicon etched prototypes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Flexible Mechanisms)
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