Design and Modelling of a Generic Compliant Mechanism with Bi-stability and Static Balancing

This article presents two new compliant mechanisms that are able to achieve bi-stability and static balancing where the improved motion characteristics and reduced footprint can be obtained. One design is a single-layer symmetrical design, and the other design is a two-layer compact design. Static balancing is accomplished by adjusting the initial slope of the beam embodied in the bistable mechanism. The free-body diagram (FBD) combined with the beam constraint model (BCM) method is employed to capture the nonlinearities in the force-displacement characteristics of the proposed compliant bistable mechanism. Nonlinear Finite element analysis (FEA) is carried out to verify the modelling results.