Projet hd3500

A mold for beam-shaped specimens (50 mm length × 5 mm width × 1 mm thickness) was designed using Solidworks software (Dassault Systems Solidworks Corp., Waltham, MA, USA). Specifically, the mold was made using a 3D printer (ProJet HD3500, 3D Systems Inc., Rock Hill, SC, USA). The designed mold was made of part (VisiJet M3 Crystal, 3D Systems Inc., USA) and supporter (VisiJet S300, 3D Systems Inc., USA) materials. After printing, the mold was heated in a convection oven (DCF-31-N, Dae Heung Science, Incheon, Korea) for melting the supporter. Lastly, the supporter was completely removed from the mold in an oil bath in an ultrasonic cleaner (Sae Han Ultrasonic Co., Seoul, Korea). After washing and drying, a release agent (Ease release 200, Smooth-On, Inc., Macungie, PA, USA) was sprayed on the mold surface to prevent the silicone from sticking to the surface of the mold.

The mold was designed using SolidWorks software (Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corp., United States) to create the CI actuators with constructible convex and concave parts. Each mold had various sizes by controlling the height and radius. Notably, there was the gap between two convex and concave molds of 0.5 mm so that the CI actuator fabricated by the molds has a thickness of 0.5 mm. This design was printed using a 3D printer (ProJet HD 3500, 3D Systems Inc., United States) [Materials: part (VisiJet M3 Crystal, 3D Systems Inc., United States) and supporter (VisiJet S300, 3D Systems Inc., United States)]. In order to remove the supporter of the output mold, it was placed in a 75°C convection oven (DCF-31-N, Dae Heung Science, South Korea) for 6 h. All remaining supporters were removed from the oil bath in an ultrasonic cleaner (SaeHan Ultrasonic Co., South Korea). After washing and drying, in order to prevent silicone from sticking to the surface of the mold, a release agent (Ease release 200, Smooth-On, Inc., United States) was sprayed and dried for 30 min.