In recent years, polymer fiber actuators obtained by twisting polymer fibers have attracted much attention. These actuators actuate due to the reversible axial thermal contraction and radial thermal expansion of untwisted fibers. In this study, thermal contraction of the two polyamides, PA6 and PA610, fibers were investigated. The fiber length of both fibers changed reversibly in response to temperature change, but there was no initial load dependence on the amount of contraction. These results indicate that this thermal contraction is not due to the entropic elasticity effect seen in rubber. In addition, the thermal contraction was larger for PA610, which has a larger thermal expansion coefficient in the amorphous state. This suggests that the thermal expansion of the amorphous state was converted by its fiber structure into expansion in the diameter direction and contraction in the fiber axial direction [Kimura et al., Sens. Actuators B Chem., 2021].
Fishing-line artificial muscles can exhibit various motions. Twisted Polymer Fiber (TPF) actuators, which are a class of fishing-line artificial muscle actuators, generate torsional motion by applying heat. In general, untwisted fiber contracts by heating. However, measuring the blocking thermal tensile force of a TPF, we have discovered that the tensile force decreased and fluctuated depending on the initial number of twists in the TPF. This suggests that a TPF expands depending on the initial number of twists. Furthermore, the tensile force does not decrease monotonically but fluctuates during heating.
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