Optimal design of toggle-linkage mechanism for clamping applications

Finger clamp units (FCU) are widely used in industries to clamp flat-shape materials such as steel plates by using a toggle-linkage mechanism. Generally, in toggle-linkage mechanisms, a near singular configuration is used to obtain a high clamping force. Because the high force characteristics in a singular configuration change dramatically for a near singular workspace, the thickness of the plate is limited for a specific toggle-linkage mechanism. In this study, the design of a FCU is optimized such that a single FCU is used for plates with different thicknesses. First, various linkage alternatives are investigated to determine the mechanism that is more useful for a toggle linkage. Second, the design is optimized to ensure a high clamping force in a pre-defined range of plate thickness. Verification experiments are performed based on the simulation results. We expect that the proposed toggle-linkage mechanism can be used for various clamping applications.