Piezoelectric Driven Carbon Fiber Cilia Based Linear Actuators

Inhalt:
Conversion of limited vibrational movements to a linear motion only limited by the length of bearings and contact surfaces is enabled by the anisotropic friction properties of tilted carbon fiber arrays. We present two linear actuators based on this principle driven by either parallel or orthogonal vibrations. The designed actuators are characterized using a specialized measurement setup which allows the measurement of driving force, reactive friction forces and drive speed. These parameters are influenced by the amplitude of the driving piezoelectric stack, its driving frequency and the material of the contacting surface. Drive speeds of up to 20 mm/s are measured for both actuator types and a linear dependency between driving frequency and drive speed is found. Our measurements show, that roughened PVC does exhibit the best friction properties with the carbon fiber arrays and should be used as contact surface for the presented actuators.