• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06c
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• pp.476-481
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• 2001

In a vacuum circuit breaker mechanism, a spring-actuated linkage system is used to satisfy the desired opening and closing characteristics of electric contacts. Because the opening dynamics of electric contacts is determined by such a linkage system, the stiffness, free length and attachment points of a spring become the important design parameters. In this paper, based on the energy conservation that the total system energy is constant throughout the operating range of a mechanism, a systematic design procedure of determining the spring design parameters is presented. The proposed procedure is applied to the design of an opening spring for satisfying the specified opening characteristics.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.36 no.11
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• pp.1405-1411
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• 2012

Remote handling manipulators are widely used for performing hazardous tasks, and it is essential to ensure the reliable performance of such systems. Toward this end, tendon-driven mechanisms are adopted in such systems to reduce the weight of the distal parts of the manipulator while maintaining the handling performance. In this study, several approaches for the design of a gripper system for a tendon-driven remote handling system are introduced. Basically, this gripper has an underactuated spring mechanism that is combined with a slave manipulator triggered by a master operator. Based on the requirements under the specified tendon-driven mechanism, the connecting position of the spring system on the gripper mechanism and kinematic influence coefficient (KIC) analysis are performed. As a result, a suitable combination of components for the proper design of the target system is presented and verified.