HI all. I've been selling nitinol wire on e*ay for some time now. One of the guys wanted help designing a lift. I thought it was a pretty cool idea. Picture at:
looks neat... build a prototype and post a video
As drawn, with a single bottom pivot, it will fall over. Real scissor lifts have a two-point sliding base of support.
John Nagle Animats
I've been working on a scissor lift design for the head of a mobile robot so this was very interesting to see.
However, apart from the need for 2-point attachments top and bottom (one or both of which must slide), I'd be concerned about power consumption. The lift will have a natural tendency to collapse, even under its own weight, so maintaining lift will require constant current through the nitinol wire.
I'm sure the simplicity of the design using this muscle wire instead of motors could find some good applications so keep working on it and try building a prototype to test.
~Jonathan
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