Development, manufacturing, and validation of a dielectric elastomer membrane actuator–driven contactor

Dielectric elastomers represent a relatively new technology with high potentials for actuators’ applications. Thanks to their lightweight, fast operations, energy efficiency, low power consumption, large deformations, and high scalability, dielectric elastomers permit to develop novel mechatronic systems capable of overperforming standard actuation technologies, such as solenoid valves, in several applications. This article presents a novel design for a dielectric elastomer–driven actuator system which enables closing and opening of a contactor. The design is based on a combination between circular out-of-plane dielectric elastomer membranes and a bi-stable biasing system which allows to increase the out-of-plane stroke. Characterization of the contactor is initially performed in order to establish the actuator requirements in terms of force and stroke. Then, systematic design and manufacturing are carried out for both dielectric elastomer membranes and biasing mechanism. Finally, the effectiveness of the actuator in closing and opening the contactor is validated experimentally. The results show comparable dynamic performance to a conventional electromagnetic drive, with the additional advantage of a significantly lower energy consumption.