EAP material and product manufacturers
This website is part of the WW-EAP Webhub that covers the topic of electroactive polymers (EAP) that are also known as artificial muscles. It was prepared by Dr. Yoseph Bar-Cohen, a Senior Research Scientist and Group Supervisor at JPL, and it is one of the links of his JPL’s NDEAA Webhub. This website was prepared in an effort to help answering the question: “where can I get these materials?” and to help those who cannot make the material themselves by following the description on the WW-EAP Recipe website. While the following list may not cover every EAP company in the world it includes most of the companies that Dr. Bar-Cohen was aware of their existence.
|
Company Name,
Contact person, E-mail, Website |
EAP materials/processes/products |
|
Artificial
Muscle, Inc. (AMI)*
Alex N. Beavers,
Jr., Ph.D. Chief Executive
Officer; *Founded by SRI International |
·
Design
and manufacture EAP based solid state actuators, sensors, and generator components
for automotive, industrial machinery and automation, electronics, consumer
goods, medical, and aerospace. · EAP devices including valve controllers,
pumps, electric servo motor replacement, force and pressure sensors, acoustic
speakers, and linear position actuators. For EAP
kits please click on: http://www.artificialmuscle.com/products/development_kits/ |
|
Danfoss PolyPower
A/S Member of the
Danfoss group
Ken Graversen Director Sales &
Marketing Michael Hamann General Manager and President |
DEAP
material with patented design of the metal electrodes
deposited on a micro structured elastomer surface Available evaluation samples
ready for ordering
|
|
EAMEX
Corporation 3-9-30 Tarumicyo Suita,
Shingo Sewa or
Kazuo Onishi; web@eamex.co.jp http://www.eamex.co.jp/index_e.html |
EAP actuators for medical applications (nursing equipment, catheter,
guide wires, and rehabilitation instrument); robotics; industry (manipulator
and conveyance equipment); hobby and art, as well as customized EAP
products. Specifically, Materials 1. Actuators and sensors made of ion-conductive membranes 2. Ion-conductive actuator rods 3. Conductive Polymer Actuators based on PPy Devices 1. Auto-focus device for mobile phones using
ion-conductive polymer |
|
EMPA:
Swiss federal laboratory of Materials
Science and Technology www.empa.ch/eap Überlandstrasse 129 CH-8600 Dübendorf
Gabor Kovacs, Ph.D. Senior Scientist Silvain Michel Head of EAP Group |
· Material: Dielectric
Elastomer Actuator (Acrylic, silicone,...) · Design: Rolled, Planar and
Stack Actuators in the Macro Scale · Chemical Synthesis and
Post-processing, Pre-Industrial Manufacturing facilities, Determination of
Material Properties, Modeling of visco- hyperelastic DE Materials |
|
Environmental
Robots Incorporated 909 Virginia, NE.,
NOTE: ERI offers complimentary samples. For information please visit their website, click on
products and then on complimentary samples. |
· IPMC-based and ionic
polymer actuators, transducers, and sensors · IPMC and conductive polymer EAP for
biomedical engineering and medical applications · Kits of bending and contractile EAP, ionic
polymeric fiber bundles, conductive polymers and chemically activated
polymers IPMC |
|
MCNC
Research and Development Institute
Scott Goodwin goodwin@mcnc.org, http://www.mcnc.org/rdi/ |
Dielectric EAP
device development and prototyping of ·
"Artificial
Eyelid" polymer flexible film ·
Electrostatic
MEMS actuator ·
Integrated
force array and electrostatic polymer actuator Artificial Eyelid |
|
Micromuscle AB Westmansgatan 29, 582
16 Linköping, Sweden,
Edwin Jager, CTO, edwin.jager@micromuscle.com;
Gert Kindgren, CEO, gert.kindgren@micromuscle.com; |
·
EAP
Products include materials and devices ranging from cellular levels for lab-on-a-chip
to implantation in the human body. ·
Conductive
polymers EAP actuators ranging in size from micrometers to several
centimeters. ·
Components
and devices for medical devices, vascular surgery, MEMS and biomedicine
micro-systems.
|
|
Molecular
Mechanisms LLC
Customer Support, sales@molecularmechanisms.com,
www.molecularmechanisms.com |
·
Development
of EAP based mechanisms ·
Polypyrrole
(PPy) tapes for Conductive Polymers (CP) EAP Bilayer CP EAP
activated in air |
|
NanoSonic,
Inc.
Richard O. Claus,
President; info@nanosonic.com; http://www.nanosonic.com |
·
Low
modulus sensors for strain, vibration and fluid flow ·
Free-standing
conductive and reflective elastomeric membranes ·
Flexible
electroding for EAP actuators using modified self-assembly (demonstrated for
dielectric EAP) Stretchable electroding
material |
|
Quantum
Technology Pty. Ltd.
Tim
Connell |
· Development of
EAP actuators for Braille Cells as an aid to visually impaired and blind.
|
|
SRI
International*
Philip von
Guggenberg, Director of Business Development, pvong@sri.com,
www.sri.com/artificialmuscle * In
2003, AMI was found to commercialize the EAP technology |
·
Dielectric
EAP actuators ·
Devices
and mechanisms that are driven by dielectric EAP ·
R&D
contracts to explore and extend the application of EAP technologies to
scientific, industrial, and military environments from nano to mega scale
devices. Dielectric
EAP |
|
Benjamin Mattes,
President and C.E.O., mattes@sfst.net |
·
Conductive
polymer EAP in the form of fibers and yarns ·
Prototyping
linear EAP Actuators called Panion Panion CP EAP |
Also, the following
are suppliers of PVDF films:
·
KTech
·
Measurement
Specialties, Inc.
·
AIRMAR Technology Corp.
·
PIEZOTECH S.A. (France)