A roller support stage with remote center of motion for roll-to-roll printed electronics

Abstract

High uniformity of the web tension is of key importance in roll-to-roll printed electronics (R2RPE). A roller support stage with remote center of motion (RCM) is proposed to eliminate the uneven tension which can be transformed into an equivalent force and two equivalent moments. The equivalent force is supported by the rigid structure, then the equivalent moments can be eliminated by adjusting the roller angle, thus the uniformity of the tension can be guaranteed. The stage mainly consists of a high-stiffness spherical air bearing (SAB) and a multi-degree-of-freedom (multi-DOF) compliant mechanism. The roller center and the rotation center of the SAB locate at the same point. Therefore the roller will not produce lateral parasitic movement when the roller angle is changed. Based on the classical beam theory and the pseudo-rigid-body-model (PRBM), the analytical model of the compliant mechanism have been established. Finite element analysis (FEA) is conducted to verify the established model. Both the analytical model and FEA results demonstrate the superior property of the design, which indicates that the proposed mechanism can meet the requirements for the angle adjustment capacity of the roller support stage.