Complaint constant force mechanism using variable stiffness leaf-spring-like beam: Design and experiment

Abstract

This research provides a design for a complaint constant-force mechanism employing a leaf-spring-like beam with variable stiffness to address the negative stiffness stroke underutilization issue of the bistable beam. By designing the compression of the leaf-spring-like beam at each given displacement and the compression ramp slope, this technique allows the constant force mechanism to potentially take full utilization of the bistable beam's negative stiffness component. Innovative design of a complaint constant force mechanism based on positive and negative stiffness is shown in this study. In addition, we conduct simulation analysis and experimental verification. The experimental results illustrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.