• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
• /
• v.51 no.12
• /
• pp.601-607
• /
• 2002

IPMC(Ionic Polymer Metal Composite)actuators were optimized for producing improved forces by changing multiple parameters including repetition of number of plating, surface electroding and additive(PVP)-treatment on reduction. The platinum electrode is deposited on the surface of the material where platinum particle stay in a dense form that appears to introduce a significant level of surface electrode resistance. Actuation tests were performed for such IPMC actuators under a low voltage. The test results show that the lower surface-electrode resistance generates higher actuation capability in the IPMC actuators. In order to investigate relaxation behavior of bending and repeatability in dry condition, the IPMC was coated by$rubber(KRATON^{TM})$to minimize the effect of water evaporation from IPMC. This actuator can be used in air with surface coating to avoid membrane drying.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers C
• /
• v.52 no.3
• /
• pp.144-151
• /
• 2003

IPMC(Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite) is promising candidate material for bio-related actuators mainly due to its biocompatibility and wet and soft properties. The widely used commercialized Nafion film has a few kinds of fixed thicknesses but more various film thicknesses are required for extensive applications. Especially for the enhanced force as an actuator, the thick film is essential. Various Nafion films with thickness of 0.4-1.2mm have been prepared by casting of liquid Nafion. Also, IPMC actuators using casted Nafion films have been fabricated and the basic mechanical properties such as stiffness, displacement and force were measured and analyzed. These results can be used for the optimized design of actuators for different applications.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
• /
• v.10 no.11
• /
• pp.1012-1016
• /
• 2004

In the present paper, equivalent beam and equivalent bimorph beam models for IPMC(ionic Polymer-Metal Composite) actuators are described. Physical properties of an IPMC, such as Young's modulus and electro-mechanical coupling coefficient. are determined from the rule of mixture, bimorph beam equations, and measured force-displacement data of a cantilevered IPMC actuator. By using a beam equation with estimated physical properties, actuation displacements of a cantilevered IPMC actuator was calculated and a good agreement between the computed tip displacements and the measured data was observed. Finite element analysis(FEA) combined with the estimated physical properties was used to reproduce the force-displacement relationship of an IPMC actuator. Results from the FEA agreed well with the measure data. The proposed models might be used for modeling of IPMC actuators with complicated shapes and boundary conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
• /
• v.7 no.4
• /
• pp.24-30
• /
• 2008

The laminate IPMC actuator have been developed with a commercial Nafion film and platinum electrodes. Equivalent beam and equivalent bimorph beam models for IPMC(Ionic Polymer-Metal Composite) actuators are described. By using a beam equation with estimated physical properities and actuation displacements of a cantilevered IPMC actuator are estimated. And Finite element analysis(FEA) was done by ANSYS.

• Composites Research
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.50-54
• /
• 2007

The Ionic Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC), an electro-active polymer, has many advantages including bending actuation, low weight, low power consumption, and flexibility. These advantages coincide with the requirements of a bio-related application. Thus, IPMC is promising materials for bio-mimetic actuator and sensor applications. Before applying IPMC to actual application, basic mechanical properties of IPMC should be studied in order to utilize IPMC for practical uses. Therefore, IPMCs are fabricated to investigate the mechanical characteristics. Nafion is used as a base ionic polymer. Mason samples cast with various thicknesses are used to test the thickness effects of IPMC. Subsequently, IPMC is fabricated using the chemical reduction method. The deformation, blocking force and frequency response of the IPMC actuator are important properties. In this present study, the performances of the IPMC actuators, including the deformation, blocking force and natural frequency, are then obtained according to only the input voltage and IPMC dimensions. Finally, the empirical performance model and the equivalent stiffness model of the IPMC actuator are established using experiments results.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
• /
• v.17 no.3
• /
• pp.533-539
• /
• 2013

Recently, Ionic Polymer Metal Composite (IPMC) systems receive great attention in the fields of the medical and biomedical Engineering because of several merits in terms of new actuators and sensors and fuel cell materials. When the voltage is excited to IPMC system, it moves. Conversely, if there are any movement on the IPMC, the IPMC has charge voltage by the internal properties. Therefore the IPMC can be used as a motion sensor or force sensor. In this paper, we identify characteristics of the IPMC and control its movements from remote locations by the smart-phone system based on visual information for monitoring. Additionally, control of movements of the IPMC is realized by transmit motion commands using the smart-phone system with the blue-tooth communication. Unfortunately, there are some deficiencies to perfectly attain physical properties of the IPMC systems from our experiments in this paper. However, in its utilization point of view, we demonstrate that the IPMC has some potentials as new sensors, actuators, and fuel cells.

• Polymer(Korea)
• /
• v.36 no.4
• /
• pp.434-439
• /
• 2012

To improve the performance of ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC) actuators, Nafion films sandwiched with Nafion/conducting nanoparticulate electrospun webs were used as polymer electrolytes of IPMC. Multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWNT) and silver were the conducting nanoparticulates and the nanoparticles dispersed in a Nafion solution were electrospun. IPMCs with the Nafion/conducting nanoparticulate electrospun webs displayed improved displacements, response rates, and blocking forces. MWNT was superior to silver in terms of displacement and blocking force, and the webs without the conducting fillers also caused enhanced performances compared with the conventional IPMCs. These improvements were attributed to an elevated electrolyte flux through highly porous interlayers and capacitance induced by well dispersed conducting fillers, and low interfacial resistance between electrolyte and electrodes.

• Polymer(Korea)
• /
• v.33 no.4
• /
• pp.377-383
• /
• 2009

Ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC) actuator generates bending actuation via ion/water flux to the cathode side under an electric field. Polyelectrolytes in IPMC should possess high water-retention capability, proton conductivity, and Young's modulus. In this study. for endowing IPMCs with these properties, Nafion-alumina composite membranes containing $\alpha$- or $\gamma$-aluminas of $4{\sim}8$ wt% were prepared. Mechanical moduli of Nafion-alumina composite membranes were $7{\sim}3$ MPa higher than that of Nafion, with the slight decrease in proton conductivity. At DC 3 V. the actuation performance of the Nafion-$\alpha$-alumina (8 wt%)-IPMC was superior to that of the typical Nafion-IPMC. exhibiting 2.7 times the displacement with an enhanced blocking force. The enhanced actuation performance with the Nafion-$\alpha$-alumina composite membranes was attributed to the higher proton conductivity, the elevated ion/water flux, and the lower interfacial electric resistance of platinum electrodes and membrane, compared with those containing $\gamma$-alumina.

• Smart Structures and Systems
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.499-508
• /
• 2017

The ionic polymer-metal composite (IPMC) is an electroactive polymer material and has a promising potential as actuators for propulsion and locomotion in underwater systems. In this paper a physics based model is used to analyse the actuation dynamics of the IPMC propulsor. Moreover, proportional-integral (PI) controller is used for position control of the tip displacement of IPMC propulsor. PI parameter tuning is performed using particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. Several performance indices have been used as an objective function to optimize the error of the system. Finally, the best tuning method is found out by comparing the results under various performance indices.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
• /
• v.31 no.7
• /
• pp.643-649
• /
• 2014

In order to demonstrate the possibility of applying an ionic polymer metal composite (IPMC) to a finger exoskeleton, pinching motion analysis was performed for a thumb-index finger dummy actuated by IPMC actuators. The IPMC actuators of 5mm in width and 40mm in length with 2.4mm thickness generated 1.52N of blocking force for the applying voltage of 4.0V. Three actuators were installed on the three rotary joint of an index finger, and one actuator was installed on one proximal joint. Positions of each joint and finger tip were recorded on the video camera, and motion was analyzed. Power supply to the index finger actuators preceded power supply to the thumb actuator, and key pinching motion was accomplished in 180s. Tip pinching was accomplished in 135s as power supply to the thumb preceded power supply to the index finger.