Observation of Wear Surface between Pure PEEK and Counterpart Materials; Titanium and 7075 Aluminum Alloy, in Robot Joint

Abstract

In our recent work, in order to realize joint element in lightweight and compact joints for tall humanoid robots, a new joint element was designed. It consists of a harmonic drive gearing device, a multi axis mechanism and a resin bush. The resin bush slides on a titanium crankshaft of the pole shape while the joint works. However, the bush was stuck, and stopped movement of the joint. In our present work, we observed the bush surfaces against two materials; the titanium and the 7075 aluminum alloy have been used. We could observe the differences between the titanium and the 7075 aluminum alloy by an optical microscope after the fatigue tests.