Abstract
This paper presents a new Bistable Collapsible Compliant Mechanism (BCCM) that is utilized in a Lamina Emergent Frustum. The mechanism is based on transforming a polygon spiral into spatial frustum shape using a mechanism composed of compliant links and joints that exhibits bistable' behavior. A number of mechanism types (graphs) were considered to implement the shape-morphing spiral, including 4-bar, 6-bar, and 8-bar chains. Our design requirements permitted the selection of a particular 8-bar chain as the basis for the BCCM. Bistable behavior was added to the mechanism by introducing a compliant link that functions as a compression spring as the mechanism morphs. Parametric CAD was used to perform the dimensional synthesis. The design was successfully prototyped.