Klug, Florian ; Solano Arana, Susana ; Förster-Zügel, Florentine ; Schlaak, Helmut F. ; Grötsch, Georg ; Cornelißen, Carsten ; Streitenberger, Almuth ; Eulenburg, Moritz (2017)
Fabrication approaches of dielectric elastomer stack transducers for complex and large-scale production.
EuroEAP 2018 7th international conference on Electromechanically Active Polymer (EAP) transducers & artificial muscles. Cartagena, Spain (6-7 June 2017)
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Kurzbeschreibung (Abstract)

During the last years a lot of fabrication methods for dielectric elastomer stack transducers (DEST) have been developed. Existing methods are based on two-dimensional thin-film manufacturing technologies. Many applications with simple shaped DEST have been shown in the past but especially for prototyping three-dimensional structuring would allow individually suited modules for each application. Additionally, due to slow manufacturing and less quantities, available DEST are very expensive and that makes them futile for many applications at this time. In this work, two fabrication approaches are presented introducing three-dimensional structured DEST and an opportunity for large-scale production. First approach is based on a three-axis positioning system to deposit materials with a dual extruder on a heated build plate. By repetitive deposition of liquid electrode and elastomer materials printing of three-dimensional DEST with less than 50 µm layer thickness is feasible. Furthermore, it allows the integration of electrical connections, cavities, channels, sensors and other structural elements during the fabrication. In the second approach, an industrial slit die coater is used to deposit liquid materials onto a PET substrate. The setup is able to stack up to nine liquid layers consisting of different materials at the same time. Afterwards, all layers are dried and cross-linked in an oven. This allows large-scale production of DEST with up to four active layers.

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