FIBER FOR ACTUATORS, AND ACTUATOR AND FIBER PRODUCT USING SAME

• Main Authors: YAMANAKA Hirofumi, KANO Hidekazu, SATO Kirita
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; French; German
• Published: 27.04.2022
• Subjects: APPARATUS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF CARBONFILAMENTS; BLASTING; CHEMICAL FEATURES IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARTIFICIAL FILAMENTS,THREADS, FIBRES, BRISTLES OR RIBBONS; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER; CRIMPING OR CURLING FIBRES, FILAMENTS, THREADS, ORYARNS; ELECTRIC MACHINES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRICITY; GENERATION; HEATING; LIGHTING; MACHINES OR ENGINES FOR LIQUIDS; MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; MECHANICAL FINISHING OF YARNS OR ROPES; MECHANICAL-POWER PRODUCING DEVICES OR MECHANISMS, NOTOTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR OR USING ENERGY SOURCES NOT OTHERWISEPROVIDED FOR; NATURAL OR ARTIFICIAL THREADS OR FIBRES; OR A REACTIVE PROPULSIVE THRUST, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; PRODUCING MECHANICAL POWER; SPINNING; SPRING, WEIGHT, INERTIA OR LIKE MOTORS; TEXTILES; WARPING OR BEAMING; WEAPONS; WIND, SPRING WEIGHT AND MISCELLANEOUS MOTORS; YARNS; YARNS OR THREADS

The present invention provides a fiber for flexible actuators that reversibly stretches and contracts by means of heating and cooling as a soft actuator. The fiber for actuators according to the present invention includes a thermoplastic resin, has a coil-spring shape, and has a spring index D/d of at least 1.7 where D is the average diameter of a coil part and d is the diameter of the fiber.