Laboratory for Dynamics of Machines and Structures 
3D printed thermal actuator



Abstract
Commercial additive technologies are gaining ground in the manufacture of soft actuators based on functional polymers with shape memory effect. As part of the master's thesis, the student designs a thermal soft actuator with shape memory effect and fabricates it on a fused filament fabrication 3D printer. The actuator is experimentally characterized by force or displacement measurement in response to the environmental thermal stimuli or internal heat generation by an embedded heating element.

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