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1. Piezoelectric actuators
1.1 Basic principle
This first family of actuators exploits the inverse piezoelectric effect, identified by the Curie brothers in the 1880s. This effect enables mechanical deformation to be generated in a material by applying an electric field. A wide range of materials can be used to achieve this effect, including quartz and ceramics with perovskite or tungsten-bronze crystalline structures. For actuation, ferroelectric ceramics are widely preferred, in particular lead titano-zirconate (hereinafter conventionally referred to as PZT), and possibly lead titanate PbTiO3 or barium titanate BaTiO3. A semi-crystalline polymer such as PVDF also exhibits a piezoelectric effect, but its use as an actuator remains very limited.
Ferroelectric ceramics such as PZT are...
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Piezoelectric actuators
Flexible fluidic actuators
Bibliography
Websites
Cedrat Technologies http://www.cedrat-technologies.com
Festo https://www.festo.com/catalogue/dmsp
Piezomotor Uppsala AB ...
Events
Micronora: Europe's leading microtechnology and precision trade show (every two years in even-numbered years). http://www.micronora.com/
Standards and norms
- AFNOR Shape memory alloys (AMF) – Vocabulary and measurements - NF A51-080 AFNOR - 1991
Patents
Takagi et al. Pneumatic Actuator for Manipulator, US patent 4,615,260 (1986)
Richard H. Gaylor, Fluid Actuated Motor System and Stroking Device, US patent 2,844,126 (1958).
Thanks
This work was partly funded by the PAI 7/38 MicroMAST network initiated by the Belgian Federal Science Policy (BELSPO), by the ARC Prediction project, and by the Erasmus Mundus EASED program.
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