ABSTRACT
The preface to this book, as well as Chapter 1, underscored the importance of the increase in industrial applications that incorporate flexure hinges and flexure-based compliant mechanisms. The automotive, aeronautical, computer, telecommunications, optical, and medical industries, to name just a few, are utilizing both macroscale and microscale (microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS) compliant mechanisms in their applications. Presented here are a few application examples drawn from the multitude of flexurebased compliant mechanisms. The selection represents just a very small portion of the array of available applications and was definitely influenced by the ability to obtain reproduction permission as well as by subjectivity; therefore, apologies are extended, in advance, for the inevitable omissions. The chapter first describes several macroscale flexure-based compliant mechanisms and concludes with another section that is dedicated to examples from the MEMS world.
