Impact drive rotary precision actuator with piezoelectric bimorphs

Abstract

An impact drive rotary precision actuator with end-loaded piezoelectric cantilever bimorphs is proposed. According to finite element analysis and experiments of the dynamic characteristics of end-loaded piezoelectric cantilever bimorphs, a specific fixed-frequency and adjustable-amplitude is confirmed to control the actuator. The results show that an actuator excited by fixed-frequency and the adjustable-amplitude ramp voltage waveform works with a large travel range (180°), high resolution (1 ?rad), speed (0.2 rad/min) and heavy-load ability (0.02 Nm). With advantages of high-precision positioning ability, simple structure and only one percent the cost of traditional impact drive mechanisms, the actuator is expected to be widely used in precision industries.

Keywords

impact driving, piezoelectric bimorph, cantilever, finite element analysis