Fast drive of displacement magnification mechanism with flexure hinge using loading type impact damper

A displacement magnification mechanism which uses flexure motion guide using elastic hinges can realize smooth frictionless motion but has poor vibration damping capability. An impact damper is a damping mechanism which uses collision energy to dissipate vibration energy. If the damper is used for vibration control of the flexure mechanism, it may be able to dissipate unexpected vibration without killing the merits of the flexure mechanism. In the paper, a loading type impact damper is applied to settle down transient vibration of a displacement magnification mechanism. We investigate differences of damping effect by setting conditions of the damper. It is shown that the impact damper can eliminate residual vibration at step response effectively without steady state error. The experimental displacement magnification mechanism with impact damper can settle down less than 1/5 of the response without the damper under appropriate setting conditions. Influence of natural frequency ratio between damper and displacement magnification mechanism is investigated. Influences of indentation at impact point are also examined.