Grasp efficient powder transport performance of peristaltic motion type conveyor based on soft actuation

Abstract

Powders are used in various devices, including printing presses. To prevent agglomeration, the powder in a printing press must be conveyed by a technique with low shear force and no temperature rise. The present study introduces a powder-conveyance robot based on peristaltic movements of the human intestinal tract, and evaluates it on the powder used in printing presses. The human intestinal tract is non-skeletal, soft and plays an important role as soft actuation. In our previous study, the peristaltic-motion type conveyor transported the powder at high speed (81.5g/s) without aggregation. However, the behavior of the inner tube after changing the characteristics and wavelength of the unit is unknown. This research investigates the conveyance amount and the inner-tube movement of a peristaltic-motion type conveyor unit operated at different wavelengths and operation intervals. By simultaneously mapping each parameter, we aim to increase the speed conveyance in future work.