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Rotating piezoelectric motors for high precision positioning & space applications
19 June 2023
Piezo-electric motors have been successfully developed for various applications like autofocus drives in camera lenses and handling equipment for semiconductor production. Their high speed and accurate positioning capability, combined with a favourable holding torque in unpowered condition, make piezomotors also very attractive for actuation purposes in spacecraft mechanisms. The paper introduces a new concept of a versatile ultrasonic piezomotor. The testing campaign carried out on the designed rotating piezomotor has validated the vacuum compatibility and the lifetime of the motor in air.
Rotating step by step piezomotor for nanopositioning and space applications
19 June 2023
Piezomotors are well known in various applications where high precision actuation is required like AFM or handling equipment for semiconductor production. Their specific low speed in direct drive and high torque characteristics combined with high holding torque in off power conditions make them very attractive for any positioning application and especially space mechanisms where low electrical consumption is always sought. A new concept of rotating stepping piezomotor has been developed in the frame of the LISA space project where the mechanism of the telescope orientation was addressed.
Rotation free linear actuator
19 June 2023
This paper presents the development of a rotation free linear actuator: The use of highly dynamic actuator in the rotating frame, such as piezo actuator, required dedicated devices to transmit the electrical power from the static frame to the rotating one. Slip rings and rotating transformers are able to provide this function. However the integration of such components required invasive operations
Picard Sodism pointing mechanism based on PPA40M-NM-SV
19 June 2023
PICARD is a French space scientific mission. Its objectives are the study of the origin of the solar variability and the study of the relations between the Sun and the Earth’s climate. The Satellite wassuccessfully launched, on June 15, 2010 on a DNEPR
launcher from Dombarovskiy Cosmodrome, nearYasny (Russia). The payload consists in two absoluteradiometers measuring the total solar irradiance and animaging telescope to determine the solar diameter andasphericity.
Piezo transducers for tank monitoring – TWI – Sept 2005
19 June 2023
Detecting microscopic structural vibrations for monitoring storage tanks with piezoelectric transducers.
Piezo-composite patches applied to the detection of defects using lamb wave focusing
19 June 2023
Ultrasonic-based SHM (Structural Health Monitoring) applications usually rely on the use of piezo-electric patches to emit and receive ultrasonic surface acoustic waves. The principle is to study the propagation of the waves through a structure to assess its health. Because of the elevated number of echoes and possible modes of propagation of the acoustic waves within the structure, those applications suffer from a burden of signal processing. This paper presents a composite piezo-electric patch and its electronics that were designed and successfully tested for reducing the complexity of the SHM detection schemes.
