Mechanical based circular notch hinge design

At the microscale, classical bearings such as ball bearings, sliding bearings and other pivots may be difficult to manufacture. Among all possible solutions to replace them, the notch hinge seems to be very attractive through its many advantages. The major limitation is on the rotation angle. This paper presents a new simplified analytical model for the prediction of the maximum angular displacement and the angular stiffness of a notch hinge. To validate our model, an experimental set-up has been developed. Finally, the results are compared to other theories.