Micromanipulators composed of Hinges and Links

In the present paper, three kinds of manipulators are shown and their characteristics are discussed. Their manipulators are as follows, (1) a micromanipulator with flexural hinges for handling micro size objects, (2) a micromanipulator with large-deflective elastic hinges for microbonding by adhesives, and (3) a molding pantograph mechanism with large-deflective hinges, which is used as one component mechanism of a palmtop surface mount system using at the one room factory. In the case of the micromanipulator with flexural hinges, its micromanipulator had a good handling performance about glass balls whose diameter is 50 or 100 mum. In the case of the micro manipulator with large-deflective elastic hinges for microbonding by adhesives, a new bonding system of a slight amount of adhesives was found, and its good performance were confirmed in experiments. In the case of the molding pantograph mechanism with large-deflective hinges whose materials are polypropylene, it was confirmed that the hinge in the mechanism had not fractured even if more than one million repeatable motion of the mechanism in the mechanism's fatigue test. Moreover, in order to have a long life hinge, the fatigue process toward the fracture of the hinge specimen was clarified in experiments by hinge-specimen's fatigue test.