In Situ Micro Gripper Shaping by Electro Discharge Machining

Bio technologies, electronic components, MEMS or watch industry require handling and positioning of ever smaller micro-parts (ten to hundred μm size). Several tools used for such tasks, called micro-grippers have been developed based on different catching and releasing principles. Vacuum grippers are mainly used in the macro world and have been successfully downsized to fulfill micro-world applications. Magnetic [1] and electrostatic [2] grippers have been also developed. Capillarity effects can also be used in order to manipulate macroand micro-parts as presented in [3]. The oldest and simplest gripping tool is based on the grasping principle, reproducing the human hand gripping ability: two fingers are moving following a linear or curve translation in a plane, called here grasping plane, and when close enough of each other they allow tightening and holding a part. The downsizing of pliers like tweezers would lead us to use these friction-based gripping tools for micromanipulation. Furthermore they are already largely used for precise manipulation tasks in bio or medical applications for instance.