Integrated Components, Sub-Assemblies
FROM THE CERAMIC TO THE COMPLETE SOLUTION
Ceramics in Different Levels of
Integration
PIC integrates piezo ceramics into the
customer’s product. This includes both the
electrical contacting of the elements accor-
ding to customer requirements and the
mounting of components provided by the
customer, and the gluing or the casting of
the piezoceramic elements. For the custom-
er, this means an accelerated manufacturing
process and shorter lead times.
Sensor Components – Transducers
PI Ceramic supplies complete sound trans-
ducers in large batches for a wide variety of
application fields. These include OEM as-
semblies for ultrasonic flow measurement
technology, level, force and acceleration
measurement.
Piezo Actuators
The simplest form for a piezo actuator is
a piezo disk or plate, from which stack
actuators with correspondingly higher
displacement can be constructed. As an
alternative, multilayer actuators are manu-
with layer thicknesses below 100 µm. Shear
factured in different lengths from piezo films
actuators consist of stacks of shear plates
and are polarized such that they have a
displacement perpendicular to the voltage
applied. Bender actuators in different basic
forms are constructed with two layers
(bimorph) by means of multilayer techno-
logy and thus provide a symmetric displace-
ment.
Piezo actuators can be equipped with
sensors to measure the displacement and
are then suitable for repeatable positioning
with nanometer accuracy. Piezo actuators
are often integrated into a mechanical
system where lever amplification increases
the travel. Flexure guiding systems then
provide high stiffness and minimize the
lateral offset.
Piezo Motors
Piezo ceramics are the drive element for
piezomotors from Physik Instrumente (PI),
which make it possible to use the special
characteristics of the piezo actuators over
longer travel ranges as well.
PILine® piezo ultrasonic motors allow very
dynamic placement motions and can be
manufactured with such a compact form that
they are already being used in many new
applications.
Piezo stepping drives provide the high
forces which piezo actuators generate over
several millimeters. The patented NEXLINE®
and NEXACT® drives from PI with their
complex construction from longitudinal,
shear and bender elements and the neces-
sary contacting are manufactured com-
pletely at PI Ceramic.
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PIEZOTECHNOLOGY