Presentazioni e Articoli Tecnici

Over the years micro motors have grown in prominence due to their compact nature. Mainly there are two types of micro motors – electromagnetic micromotors and electrostatic micromotors. In this study, an alternate type of micromotor powered by thermal actuator was designed and investigated. This novel micromotor is based on the crank rocker mechanism and it was investigated for its design, working principle and the fabrication process. In this, the thermal actuator converted the thermal energy in the circuit into linear motion. This linear motion in the thermal actuator was converted into rotatory motion upon contact with the four-bar linkage. The temperature variations in the thermal actuator were recorded as a function of the variations in the input voltage. Due to the joule losses, increasing the input voltage led to an increase in the temperature and thermal expansion of the thermal actuator. This thermal expansion led to structural displacement of the thermal actuator and the variations of this displacement with respect to the input voltage were recorded. These structural deformations in the thermal actuator were made use of to attain a displacement in the crank rocker so as to attain a rotatory motion in one of its arms – which acted as a micromotor.