Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd.

Other

Naoto Kuriyama

Hiromitsu Takeuchi

Takashi Maeno

Takanori Nakai

Yoji Kimura

Yutaka Tsuchikawa

Mitsuru Akashi

Michiya Matsusaki

Yukihisa Ueno

Tatsuo Kaneko

Tran Thi Hang

An actuator includes a sheet having dielectric elastomer layers and conductive rubber layers provided on the front and back faces of each dielectric elastomer layer. The sheet is wrapped and rolled about a coil spring. The actuator expands the rolled sheet along an expansion direction of the coil spring by applying a voltage to the conductive rubber layers on the front and back faces of the dielectric elastomer layer, and contracts the rolled sheet along a contraction direction of the coil spring by stopping the application of the voltage. The actuator further includes a fiber layer located between the coil spring and the rolled sheet wrapped about the coil spring.

Actuator

An actuator manufacturing method includes alternately stacking a plurality of dielectric elastomer layers and a plurality of conductive rubber layers along the direction of thickness to form a sheet, and wrapping the sheet formed about a core to form a rolled sheet. When the sheet formed in the step of alternately stacking is wrapped about the core, the sheet is formed by the dielectric elastomer layers and the conductive rubber layers. Therefore, even if the dielectric elastomer layers in the sheet are made to be thin, the thickness of the entire sheet is prevented from being excessively thin.

Actuator manufacturing method

A dielectric actuatorof the present invention has a structure in which an elastic, high-dielectric material portionis held by elastic insulating material portionsandand the elastic insulating material portions are held by electrodesandfrom the outside. A base material for the elastic, high-dielectric material portionis formed of a silicon rubber and a graphite powder is mixed therein to apply a conductive property.

Dielectric actuator

A bio-liquid crystal polymer is made from a tissue-derived compound or the derivatives. The bio-liquid crystal polymer has a characteristic of liquid crystal under predetermined conditions and is biocompatible.

Bio-liquid crystal polymer and shaped material using same

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Kiyosu, Japan

Naoto Kuriyama