Eliminating Underconstraint in Double Parallelogram Flexure Mechanisms

We present an improved flexure linkage design for removing underconstraint in a double parallelogram (DP) linear flexural mechanism. This new linkage alleviates many of the problems associated with current linkage design solutions such as static and dynamic performance losses and increased footprint. The improvements of the new linkage design will enable wider adoption of underconstraint eliminating (UE) linkages, especially in the design of linear flexural bearings. Comparisons are provided between the new linkage design and existing UE designs over a range of features including footprint, dynamics, and kinematics. A nested linkage design is shown through finite element analysis (FEA) and experimental measurement to work as predicted in selectively eliminating the underconstrained degrees-of-freedom (DOF) in DP linear flexure bearings. The improved bearing shows an 11 x gain in the resonance frequency and 134 x gain in static stiffness of the underconstrained DOF, as designed. Analytical expressions are presented for designers to calculate the linear performance of the nested UE linkage (average error < 5%). The concept presented in this paper is extended to an analogous double-nested rotary flexure design.