Selection of Compliant Constant-Force Mechanisms Based on Stress and Force Criteria

Recent developments have made possible simple, compressive, constant force mechanisms (CFM) using compliant mechanism approaches. In order to reliably design such mechanisms for particular applications it is essential to understand the feasibilities of various configurations in terms of output force magnitude and allowable stresses. This paper first reviews past work done in the area of CFMs and then develops new non-dimensionalized parameters. While these new parameters simplify the calculations required to design a CFM, they will be utilized in future work to develop improved configurations and a detailed design methodology. The paper concludes by presenting an example that shows the usefulness of the new parameters.