This week we attempt to use two different designs to solve the problems that arose last week. The first design is a hard ABS with a hinge structure. As you can see in the screenshot, the gray part is the ABS rigid tissue and the blue part is the silicone and the air hose. There are two ring-like objects linked to the ABS parts, which are meant to be fixed to the finger.
Use: When we inject air into the silicone part, the silicone part expands and squeezes the surrounding walls to force the ABS part to rotate. This is a good solution to the problem of force distribution that occurred in the previous model. We used the hinge to concentrate the force in one direction.
The second design is an improvement of the old design.
You can see that we have used two triangles instead of one to provide a more consistent force output. We think the problem that can occur with one triangle is that it causes “ballooning”. Using two triangles allows them to squeeze each other to extend in the opposite direction. This would improve the second problem that appeared last week.
Now that we have the models 3D printed, the next step is to test them.