Compliant mechanism

In mechanical engineering, compliant mechanisms are flexible mechanisms that transfer an input force and displacement at one port to an output force and displacement at another port through elastic body deformation. These may be monolithic (single-piece) or jointless structures. In mechanical engineering, compliant mechanisms are flexible mechanisms that transfer an input force and displacement at one port to an output force and displacement at another port through elastic body deformation. These may be monolithic (single-piece) or jointless structures. Since many compliant mechanisms are single-piece structures, there is no need of assembly. With no joints, 'rubbing' between two parts or friction as seen at the joints of rigid body mechanisms is absent. Compliant mechanisms are elastic. Compliant mechanisms are usually designed using two techniques, the first being a pseudo-rigid-body model and the second, the topology optimization. Other techniques are being conceived to design these mechanisms. Compliant mechanisms manufactured in a plane that have motion emerging from said plane are known as lamina emergent mechanisms (LEMs). The flexible drive or resilient drive, often used to couple an electric motor to a machine (for example, a pump), is one example. The drive consists of a rubber 'spider' sandwiched between two metal dogs. One dog is fixed to the motor shaft and the other to the pump shaft. The flexibility of the rubber part compensates for any slight misalignment between the motor and the pump. See rag joint and giubo. The Second International Symposium on Compliant Mechanisms, was held on May 19-20, 2011 at Delft, Netherlands. Compliant mechanisms can be used to create self-adaptive mechanisms, commonly used for grasping in robotics.