Miniature actuators have wide potential
An
Unimatic Engineers product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Dec 18, 2003
Unimatic Engineers is offering a bespoke design miniature linear actuator to those companies developing systems and machines where size and/or weight are critically important.
Unimatic Engineers is offering a bespoke design miniature linear actuator to those companies developing systems and machines where size and/or weight are critically important, such as automotive and aerospace, implants and other medical technologies, electronics production and nanotechnology developments.
The actuators, known as Piezo Legs, can be as small as 5 x 2 x 1mm, for which a stroke of 3-4mm would be usual.
The biggest units produced to date have a stroke of 35mm.
Load capacity on even the smallest units is typically measured in tens of Newtons, and position resolution is in nano proportions.
At the heart of these actuators is a ground breaking direct drive linear motor with no internal moving parts.
This is machined from a single piece of piezolaminate in such a way as to form pairs of legs.
When power is applied to the laminate the legs effectively "walk", taking up to 10,000 steps per second and thus causing the drive rod of the actuator to advance or retract.
The amount of electrical power required is so miniscule that piezo products are completely non-sparking and therefore certified as intrinsically safe for use in high explosion risk environments.
A rotary version of the motor is also available.
Their simplicity, robustness and precision accuracy mean they outperform traditional electromechanical equivalents by several orders of magnitude and are allowing new frontiers to be established in the drive to create miniature engineered systems.
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