This is an article about piezoelectricity and one of its applications, the piezo motor. Learn about the history of the piezoelectric effect and how this phenomenon makes its way into everyday products.
Piezoelectricity was founded during the 19th century by Pierre and Jacques Curie. At the time,
they were only 21 and 24 years of age. The Curie brothers detected that quartz crystals produced an electric field when stressed along a primary axis. The term piezo comes from the Greek; Piezein, which translates to mean “to squeeze or press,” and piezo, which translates to mean “push.”
Piezoelectricity is a transducer association between electrical power and mechanical oscillation. The piezoelectric effect occurs in certain materials that have the ability to produce electricity when put through mechanical stress. This material duress-rotating, distorting or compressing-has to be simply enough to deform the crystal lattice without fracturing it.
Piezo properties are special in that they happen to be reversible. This means that materials exhibiting the direct piezoelectric effect, or the generation of electric energy when stress is applied, also exhibit the opposite piezo effect, the generation of mechanical stress when an outside electrical field is applied.
What is a Piezo Motor?
A piezo motor takes advantage of the piezoelectric effect, the tension that allows a multilayered material, like quartz or Rochelle salt, to bend when charged with an energy current. A piezoelectric motor doesn't produce or need magnetic fields, and it's not affected by them. In that regard, the piezo motor runs more precisely when compared with a ordinary electric motor unit. It is small, incredibly powerful, very quick and has neither rotors nor gears.
One time I saw a piezo motor that was as tiny as a sugar cube. It could maneuver many centimeters at once and could carry nearly 1,000 times its own weight.
The Mechanics of the Piezo Motor
The piezoelectric motor has been included in microchip creation for several years, so it is not a new concept. Zirconate, lead and titanate powders are processed, morphed to shape, fired, charged, polarized, and tested. To reach polarization, electric fields are applied to line up the materials along a primary axis.
This system may seem complicated, but the piezo motor operates the same way that elements containing iron are magnetized. After electricity is applied, the piezoelectric motor employs its poled ceramic shape to create motion with the use of routine, sinusoidal electrical fields.
The ceramic area is coupled with a precision stage, and the resulting power from the piezo motor creates stage movement. Depending how the joining device is constructed, a piezo motor can move both linearly and also in a rotational fashion. The routine nature from the driving voltage generates unlimited travel and steady motion.
Piezo Motor Types
The piezoelectric motor is built for a variety of uses. Certain piezoelectric motors are used in camera sensor displacement technologies, allowing anti-shake capabilities. For example, the traveling-wave piezo motor is used for the auto-focus function in reflex cameras.
The piezo motor can be used in portable products, medical technology products, the automobile sector as well as in electronic household electrical devices. The piezoelectric motor is getting much more cost-effective, even for mass volume uses in high-precision systems.
Although the piezoelectric motor is but one unique application of the piezo phenomenon, lots of other uses exist. Today, modern piezoelectric materials are mass-manufactured for a number of uses-underwater transducers, medical products, and ultrasonic cleaners, for instance.
