Actuators that base on thermal expansion are called thermal actuators and are very often used as protection against overheating. The most common form of these are bimetals, which are only profitable at mass production. Therefore, it makes sense to design a thermal actuator that can be produced with a simple process and in small series. In this work, we present a 3D print of a bendable thermal actuator from commercially available materials. We used fused filament fabrication technology, at which we first studied the thermal coefficients of longitudinal expansion for different materials. The coefficients were obtained by measuring expansion of 3D printed samples. In the following, with the help of the obtained coefficients, we designed bendable thermal actuators, on which we performed deflection measurements. When measuring the thermal coefficient of longitudinal expansion, we found out that the printing direction of the samples is important. With a bendable thermal actuator which has an active length of 35 mm, we achieved a deflection of 2.5 mm.
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