Development of a Novel Large Travel Compliant Buffer Mechanism

This paper presents the design and development of a novel large travel compliant buffer mechanism for shock isolation. Compliant buffer mechanism is used to replace traditional spring and kinematic pair with its advanced guiding characteristics and integrated structure. The design is based on the compliant linear guided mechanism which is composed of several folded beams attached in series and parallel. Stiffness analysis is completed to investigate optimum design of the model with maximum travel by using the theory of elastic beam theory, finite element analysis is conducted for comparison with the mathematical model and to evaluate axial stiffness and dynamic transverse stiffness with different axial displacement, results show that the complaint buffer mechanism is a significant improvement over existing shock isolator and a maximum stroke of 10 mm can be achieved, the ratio of the off-axis stiffness to the axial stiffness is more than 16:1 which means that the compliant buffer mechanism has the advanced ability of resisting motion in unwanted directions. Finally, the finite element method is used to analyze the shape mode of the structure, dynamic analysis results show the first-fifth order mode shape and the natural frequency is 70 HZ. The analysis shows that CBM is a novel alternative to the classic shock isolator consists of spring and rigid-body kinematic pairs.