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Polymeric thermal actuator with a screen-printed heating element embedded in a bilayer structure

A soft actuator system produced using a simple fabrication process is reported. The combination of two polymers with different thermal expansion properties in a bilayer structure generated a large displacement by Joule heating via a heating element printed between the polymer layers. The fabrication process mainly involved printing and coating, which are proven technologies for large-area manufacturing. The fabricated actuator showed submillimeter-scale displacements due to the difference in the coefficients of thermal expansion of the polymer materials. The proposed actuator design and fabrication method will aid in the further development of soft thermal actuators based on polymer materials.