DEVELOPMENT OF AN EXERCISE EQUIPMENT BASED UPON COMPLIANT CONSTANT FORCE MECHANISM TECHNOLOGY

Abstract

The present health challenges in our community such as diabetes and high blood pressure could be prevented by regular exercise. Lack of regular exercise and unavailability of exercise equipments lead to ill health problem. There is a need to design exercise equipment that reduces fatigue in our body. The development of exercise equipment with lesser weight and low assembly cost and time will help in reducing the health challenges. The equipment is designed with application of Compliant Constant Force Mechanism (CCFM) technology and fabricated using local available material. CCFM technology helps in reducing assembly time and cost. The design principle involves elasticity of the flexible element “spring steel” which produces a constant force with set of defined principle such as kinematic, lagrangian and strain-energy analysis. The study requires design of muscle load ranges between 5 to 15kg which are classified as pennate and non-pennate muscle. It was observed that pennate muscle produces high constant force. However, the muscle group for both pennate and non-pennate within the range of 1-5kg are appropriate load for the designed equipment because of better equipment efficiency when applying the load. The velocity ratio between muscle load and CCFM element was 1.3:1. The maximum compliant constant force was 9045 N. The minimum possible compliant force was 13.24N with minimum stored potential energy of 2.46J. The equipment’s efficiency was determined to be 61%. The equipment is required to be used for muscle below 6kg within 10 to 18 cm of muscle length. The use of the equipment will improve health-condition of a normal body.