OK, here goes...
Prepare to be amazed. JK, nothing groundbreaking here but here goes.
There are 2 tweaks I have in mind.
1. Modification to the internal structure to reduce the strain on the wire to make it last longer.
2. A tweak to the shape to prevent the fingers from bending backwards (and could be modified further to prevent bending side to side).
(pardon my crude 3D screenshots here, they're just for visualization purpose)
The first one tries to minimize the stress on the wire in a bent finger position.
- 01_ControlBend.jpg (20.81 KiB) Viewed 2020 times
If you spread the compression effect of the metal across a longer stretch of the wire you may increase the number of bends with wire can withstand.
Inside the phalange might look something like this:
- 02_InsideJoint.JPG (23.02 KiB) Viewed 2020 times
The image is not completely correct as I have not hollowed out the volume that is displaced from the straight wire position to the curved position..
My Second idea is a protrusion of the form on either end like this:
- 03_Protrusions.JPG (19.38 KiB) Viewed 2020 times
And the resulting effect would be something like this:
- 04_StraightLocked.JPG (17.32 KiB) Viewed 2020 times
- 05_Bent.JPG (18.39 KiB) Viewed 2020 times
I'm not accounting for many issues that would pop up during practical design. These are just the concepts. Plus I think you would need to wrap the fingers similar to the skeleton joints so that the tpe doesn't get ripped up in between the phalanges.
Thank you, g'night!