New modular piezo actuator with built-in stress-strain transformation

As known, the electrical induced strain of conventional piezoceramic materials is limited by 0.12 % (2 kV/mm), which often requires strain transformation designs, like levers, in order to meet application needs. High fabrication accuracy and low tolerances are crucial points in mechanical manufacturing causing high device costs. Therefore, we developed a piezoelectric composite actuator with inherent stress - strain transformation. Basically, piezoceramic sheets are laminated with spring steel of a certain curvature, which can be realised by a comparatively simple fabrication technique. The working diagram of these composite bow actuators showed a high level of performance adaptable to a wide range of applications. The authors established the value chain covering the piezoceramic formulation, the processing technology and the design in view of optimum system performance. The paper presents an overview of the design principles, simulation and various aspect of fabrication technology including lamination, sintering and polarization. The new devices are useable in different sectors, for example in automotive industry as solid state transducer or as the active part in injectors. Moreover, the composite bow actuators may find application in microsystems technology, micro optics and micro fluidics as well as vibration dampers. The composite bow actuators can be used as single component transducer, as well as multi-bow actuator in series or parallel combination on demand.