EAP high-level product architecture

EAP technology has the potential to be used in a wide range of applications. This poses the challenge to the EAP component manufacturers to develop components for a wide variety of products. Danfoss Polypower A/S is developing an EAP technology platform, which can form the basis for a variety of EAP technology products while keeping complexity under control. High level product architecture has been developed for the mechanical part of EAP transducers, as the foundation for platform development. A generic description of an EAP transducer forms the core of the high level product architecture. This description breaks down the EAP transducer into organs that perform the functions that may be present in an EAP transducer. A physical instance of an EAP transducer contains a combination of the organs needed to fulfill the task of actuator, sensor, and generation. Alternative principles for each organ allow the function of the EAP transducers to be changed, by basing the EAP transducers on a different combination of organ alternatives. A model providing an overview of the high level product architecture has been developed to support daily development and cooperation across development teams. The platform approach has resulted in the first version of an EAP technology platform, on which multiple EAP products can be based. The contents of the platform have been the result of multi-disciplinary development work at Danfoss PolyPower, as well as collaboration with potential customers and research institutions. Initial results from applying the platform on demonstrator design for potential applications are promising. The scope of the article does not include technical details. © 2013 SPIE.