High Precision XY Stage (compliant mechanism)

A very accurate XY stage for use with a USB microscope (for example).

I have always been very intrigued by compliant mechanisms and what you can achieve with them. For this model I based myself on the presentation and explanation of this system which you can find HERE. I was curious whether you could achieve the same effect and precision with 3D printing.

The final model is extremely suitable for making a very cheap hobby setup with a USB microscope, which in itself are very easy and cheap to obtain. Normally, moving the object under a microscope with your free hand is very difficult and frustrating. With this XY stage you can very easily move objects under the microscope with µm precision (without the object rotating in the field of view).

The whole consists of (many) leaf springs that together ensure the freedom of movement and accuracy. The final freedom of movement is limited (approximately 5.8mm stroke in X and Y), but sufficient for use under a microscope. The movement is provided by 2 spindles that are built up with the help of an M3 screw. These have a pitch of 0.5mm, which means that with 1 revolution a displacement of 0.5mm occurs. The scale on the knob is 10 lines, which means that with a revolution of 1 line only 0.05mm or 50µ is moved!

Hardware parts:

You need 2x M3x20 cylinder screw with hexagon socket (DIN912 - M3x20) and 4x M3 nut (DIN934 - M3)

Assembly:

2x making the spinde assembly.

Mount en glue the assembly according to below image..

Now place the spindle assemblies in the bottom plate:

Now Glue the Bottom- and Topplate together.

First apply glue to indicated surfaces:

Check there's no tension on the leaf springs!

Then place the topplate (in correct orientation) on the bottomplate.

Make sure you press all parts well aligned and tight together.

As last part, glue the 4 feet in the recesses from the bottom plate.

The standard table is small, due to the fact that I wanted to see the mechanism in action (and not hide it). If you want to use a bigger table, i've added a 100mx100m table with the STL files.

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p.s. The official name for this model is: mirror-symmetrical xy compliant parallel manipulator (see video in mentioned link)