electro static actuator attempt

[ratstar]

I'm going to 3d print it, so its perfect, but its such a simple thing I probably could fold and glue it out of plastic as well.

The arrows are how you assemble the concentric squares to the bottom rail where its move apon, and a plug at the top to stop them falling out upwards.

its diagonally downward to the right, is the actuation axis.

So I wire up the concentric squares interleaved polarity, and I paint one side of the concentric squares with conductive charcoal paint, then if I put enough amps and volts into it (Im thinking of going from my marx generator to it.) Then the squares should contract and hug to the centre on the side that I charge it. (Its a very short stroke, over 1cm or something)

You only get what collapses out the concentric squares, the actual thickness of the squares doesnt go into the stroke, obviously.

I'm going to do it next week sometime, If it works then, I don't have to buy servos anymore!!! because this is just as good.

With the design like this I wonder if I actually get it to work for left and right and in and out, because that might come in handy.

 

[Audioguru]

Lots of amps and lots of volts make it extremely inefficient and produce plenty of heat (melt it?).
Will it produce enough force to do anything?

 

[Nanren888]

So one of these things conducts? And one is piezo-electric?

 

[hevans1944]

@ratstar always appears (at least to me) to be short on theory, but he tries to make up for it (to a certain extent) by his penchant to experiment. I like that approach when it leads to learning about something. I think it might even have a name... The Edison Method, perhaps? I hope he keeps us informed on how it all works out!

But a Marx Generator? Really?

 

[Nanren888]

Piezo things are often oriented. Even if sometimes you use the field to squish one direction to get an expansion another.
.
Which direction is the movement here? Of which pieces?

 

[ratstar]

AudioGuru - it might not be efficient, but it working at all is a plus.

Nanren88 - I should have put in the diagram where the conductor goes, its on one sided either end of it on the concentric plates, it forms a mechanical capacitor (You know how I have a thing for capacitors.) The movement is along that bottom rail top left to the bottom right axis.

Hevans1944 - This actuator requires a source of high voltage, and ive got a whole new way of doing cascaded marx generators, my new design, which I have to test yet, and put more work into, but hopefully wont be so long to finishing, will get x128V in only 14 capacitors, which is alot better than a normal marx generator which requires 128 caps for x128V!

The main cool thing about this actuator, is apart from a short paint job, its purely 3d printable, and 3d printing dc motors isn't so simple, but its not quite a motor, its more of a vibrator I guess, but I can work with that. I can include these "actuator/vibrator/servos" in the plastic robot frame itself! (awesome manufacture potential.)