Wire electrical discharge grinding of micro rods for bonding-free fabrication of soft pneumatic microactuators

摘要

This paper presents the machining process of tungsten carbide micro rods using wire electrical discharge grinding (WEDG). The micro-rodes are used in the bonding-free moulding process of soft pneumatic microactuators. First, a multi-step cutting strategy including roughing and finishing is described. Second, two sets of grooves of different depths are WEDGed into the micro rods. Based on the concept of interconnected pneumatic networks, the machining of micro rods would enable the fabrication of soft pneumatic microactuators in which bending motion is concentrated on specific sections when they are pressurised.