The influence of asymmetric flexure hinges on the axis of rotation

Material coherent flexure hinges allow a specific geometrical design of monolithic compliant mechanisms and their deformation behavior. In precision engineering especially prismatic flexures with lumped compliance are used. In this contribution the potential of simple asymmetric flexure hinges to minimize the shift of rotational axis is shown. Therefore the notch contour is described by different and with respect to the transverse height axis asymmetric hinge geometries based on circular fillets. For the FEM-based comparison with common contours a low stress-deflection ratio is considered as an additional criterion to the precision of rotation. Index Terms Compliant mechanisms, flexure hinges, precision of rotation, asymmetric notch contours