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Introduction
In the assembly of microproducts the grasping-releasing task is fundamental. At micro- scale standard assembly techniques cannot generally be applied, so several innovative grasping methods have been developed. In a reduced system the capillary forces, that i sproportional to the linear dimension, have a relative increase because volume and surface forces decrease faster. Capillary gripping principle is one of the most flexible and reliable but releasing is often very critical. Several releasing principles have been developed in literature.
This work proposes a novel releasing strategy that makes use of the capillary force also to release the micropart, in particular it exploits the different surface tension of the two liquids used in the picking and releasing task. A theoretical and numerical model of this handling strategy has been developed, an experimental layout has been realized and finally the results have been compared.