Development of a Negative Type Polymer Brake Using a Contraction Type PVC Gel Actuator

Abstract

A poly vinyl chloride (PVC) gel actuator shows great potential because of such positive characteristics as movement in the air, large deformation, and being lightweight. We have developed a contraction type actuator [2]–[6]. In this study, we propose an application of the PVC gel actuator to negative actuated brakes. We made an experimental apparatus which consisted of a motor with an encoder, a torque sensor and a brake using the PVC gel actuator. We measured the characteristics of the polymer brake by using the experimental apparatus. The followings are the results that we found from the experiments. The static brake torque is more than 70[mNm], and the response rate is about 0.04[s]. Based on the results, we showed that the proposed brake was useful for small motors.