Exploratory Studies on Largely Available On The Shelf Materials for Smart Actuators

Nowadays, the smart materials seem to have better acceptance in various
industries. The main reason for this is their ability to change their properties to
comply with the situation. Thus, they can overcome the limited performance of other
materials. The problem identified is that the current systems are mostly having low
efficiency and high possibilities of failures. The research is to do exploratory study
on the largely available on the shelf materials with further aim to produce smart
materials actuator. However, the research is only up to the selection of the best
available material in the market with low cost and high efficiency. The research
project is done by firstly doing research and survey on possible materials that are
within availability. The selected materials are silicones, acrylic polymer and
polyvinyl alcohol which are smart materials from electroactive polymer material
group. Then, the continuation is to prepare the materials for experiment and
measurement. The experiment done is the Electrostrictive Test. Results of
experiment and measurement are used to do analysis and improvement on the
research. Then, the selection of the best material is done. For the research, the
experimental works had failed because they produce inaccurate results. However,
Silicone appear to be the best available on the shelf materials considering the
flexibility, the cost, experimental results and also based on some literatures.
Electroactive polymer materials are still in their research stages. However, they have
a very high potential to be used as artificial muscles and also in many other different
fields. The researches of smart materials are predicted to produce beneficial results at
the end of it