Design of a Wiper as Compliant Mechanisms with a Monolithic Layout

The increasingly important need to design simpler structures, reducing the number of constituent components, has motivated the approach outlined in this article, which proposes an effective reengineering example of a product belonging to the automotive industry, combining the advantages offered by the compliant mechanisms with production opportunities linked to the use of additive manufacturing. Taking advantage of compliant mechanisms makes it possible to significantly improve the component’s production phase, leading to undoubted benefits on the supply chain and on product’s time to market, benefits made possible by exploiting the outstanding characteristic of additive manufacturing to produce already assembled multi-material structures. The performances of the innovative monocomponent wiper designed here were compared, with the help of finite element method (FEM) simulations, with those of the component made in the traditional way and with those of the only other existing single-component frame of which we have news, the one patented by the United States (US) company Flexsys, obtaining satisfactory results both in terms of weight reduction, for the best pressure distribution at the wiper/glass interface, and in terms of maximum stress reduction.