Patent ID: 7392886

Claim:
A clamping and/or braking device including: (a) a base element, which is connected rigidly by means of two adjacent wall sections to a force-applying element, by means of which the generated clamping and/or braking forces can be transferred to an object, (b) wherein the two adjacent wall sections define an essentially sealed pressure chamber that can be pressurized with positive pressure or negative pressure, (c) wherein the two wall sections each have a bending region, which is resistant to tensile force and nevertheless can be bent elastically so that the bending regions form an elastic element between the base element and the force-applying element, (d) wherein in the unpressurized built-in state of the clamping and/or braking device, the two wall sections exert a predetermined clamping and/or braking force on the object by means of the force-applying element, (e) wherein the two wall sections and their bending regions are shaped and dimensioned so that from an initial position of the pressure chamber a first pressure applied in the pressure chamber results in an increase in the curvature of the bending regions and reduces the clamping and/or braking forces transferred by the force-applying element to the object, or so that from the initial position of the pressure chamber a second pressure applied in the pressure chamber results in a decrease in the curvature of the bending regions and increase the clamping and/or braking forces transferred by the force-applying element to the object, and wherein the second pressure is opposite to the first pressure, and (f) wherein the two wall sections are formed by two wall elements, each wall element formed as a ring-shaped, radially slotted plate, and wherein the bending regions are formed at least in the wall element regions between the slots.