Crimp development

Wire actuators offer enormous potential in various industries, including medical engineering, the automotive industry, and the consumer goods sector. Nevertheless, integrating the fine wires into fully automated production processes poses a major challenge. In all known industrial applications, only crimp or splice connections are currently used to integrate the wires into the respective system environment. However, there is no standardized method for the systematic design of crimp connections that takes application-specific requirements into account. In addition, existing property rights make it difficult to develop new solutions, as many claims extend not only to the technical design of shape memory actuators, but also to their production processes. Despite the diverse property rights situation, transferability to other applications remains considerably difficult.

To overcome these challenges, Fraunhofer IWU developed a scalable crimping concept that can be used in a wide range of industrial applications. Manufactured crimp connections were comprehensively characterized as part of a parameter study. A mathematical model can be used to determine the key influencing factors and their interactions on the strength of the connection, enabling cycle-resistant crimp connections to be designed according to individual requirements.