Experimental Research on Behaviour of 3D Printed Gripper Soft Jaws

In this paper, the problem of the behaviour of soft jaws that can be used to replace the steel jaws of grippers is studied. One of the advantages of additive manufacturing is the printing of fully functional parts. Choice of material is often related to the part strength. The mechanical properties of 3D printed parts should meet the service loading and, also, must be comparable with parts produced by traditional manufacturing techniques - machined parts or injection moulding. From the specialized literature information regarding the test results for effect of various printing parameters on part strength are available made in laboratory conditions and for standard test sample. For ABS materials various values for Young module are presented varying from 1.5 GPa to 2.15 GPa, for 100% infill rate and various modified parameters such as raster orientation. In order to study the behaviour of soft gripper jaws several part were printing and the resistance to bending was tested, by simulating the way a gripper works. An experimental stand was built using a force transducer and a displacement transducer to measure the deformation of the jaw, obtained by 3D printing, under load. The mechanical elastic hysteresis loop during an experimental loading/unloading was plotted and the amount of mechanical energy lost during a cycle, dissipated because the internal friction, was determined. Finite element analysis method was applied to make a comparison with the experimental results. In the finite element analysis, several simulations were considered, varying Young's modulus for the tested material.