A team of researchers from the Swiss federal laboratories of “EMPA” material technology (EMPA) works on muscles made of soft materials. Now, for the first time, they have developed a way to produce these complex ingredients using a 3D printer.
The artificial muscles are not limited to moving robots only, but they may one day be able to support people at work or while walking or replacing the affected muscle tissues. However, the development of artificial muscles that compare real muscles represents a major technical challenge.
To keep up with its biological counterparts, the artificial muscles should not only be strong, but also flexible and soft. The artificial muscles are called “engines”, which are components that convert electrical impulses into movement.
These engines are used wherever something moves with a button, whether at home, in the car engine or in advanced industrial facilities. However, these solid mechanical ingredients are not similar to the muscles so much yet.
The so -called DEA flexible engines consist of two different silicone substances: a connected electrode and a non -connected insulating material. These materials are intertwined in layers.
“It is similar to that of your fingers,” said Patric Danner. When applying an electric voltage to the electrodes, the operator is like the dilemma. Upon the voltage was interrupted, he returns to his original situation, according to his statements conveyed by Yorik Alier.
The study of researchers in the Journal of Advanced Materials Technologies was published.
Danner knows that printing such a structure with a 3D printer is not easy. Although their electrical properties differ significantly, the two linked articles should act very similar during the printing process. It should not be mixed, but you must be coherent in the final operator.
The printed “muscles” should be as soft as possible in order for electrical stimulation the desired deformation. Added to the requirements that must be met by all 3D printable materials, as they must be flowing under pressure in order to be removed from the printer nozzle.
Immediately after that, it should be sticky enough to keep the printed shape. “These characteristics are often completely contradictory. If one of them improved, three other characteristics change … usually to worse,” says Danner.
From a virtual reality to a beating heart
In cooperation with researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Danner and Durina Oberis – which leads the Polimatic Job Poor Research Group – succeeded in reconciling many of these contradictory characteristics.
Habran was developed in “Imba” and a pruning in flexible engines using a nozzle developed by researchers Tazio Blage and Yan Ferman of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. This cooperation is part of the broad “sensory touches” project, and is part of the strategic field of advanced industrialization at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. The project aims to develop a glove that makes virtual worlds concrete. The artificial muscles are designed to simulate the cache through the resistance.
However, there are much more possible applications for flexible engines. They are lightweight and silent, and thanks to the new 3D printing process, it can be formed as needed.
It can replace traditional engines in cars, machines and robots. If it is developed more, it can also be used in medical applications. Dorina Obress and Patrick Danner are already this technique. Their new method can only be used to print complex shapes, but also long elastic fibers.
“If we can make it a little thinner, we will get close to how real muscle fibers do,” says Durina Oberis.
The researcher believes that in the future it may be possible to print a full heart of these fibers. However, there is still a lot to do before this dream becomes true.