Piezo drives offer precision miniature actuation
An
Unimatic Engineers product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Sep 6, 2006
The key qualities of piezo are its precise movements and the tiny power consumption, and these form the basis of Unimatic's new Elliptec range.
Unimatic Engineers is to launch a new range of piezoelectric motors, actuators and resonators to complement those already in its product portfolio.
Piezo technology uses the electrodynamic characteristics ceramic laminates to produce precision motion.
If a microvoltage is momentarily applied to piezo element, it will deflect by a precisely predictable amount and remain in this new position.
A second charge will return it to exactly its original position.
The key qualities of piezo are its precise movements and the tiny power consumption, and these form the basis of Unimatic's new Elliptec range.
The actuators are the simplest design, using the deformation directly or through a lever arm to increase the stroke length.
Whereas the actuators are fixed stroke, the motors are infinite stroke, as they repeated cycle the piezo element for either a defined count, against a time base or in conjunction with a feedback signal.
Resonators are designed to vibrate when excited by a piezoelectric element and typically are customised products produce to specific customer requirements.
The Elliptec products are silent, lightweight, ultracompact, silent, versatile, precise and low in cost, and so Unimatic is expecting to apply them in a diverse range of applications.
It is already looking at their use in CD trays and auto-focus cameras, medical applications and precision optics.
Exploratory discussions are underway for a number of automotive applications, including within the fuel supply systems, passenger features and low emissions developments.
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