Piezo Motor Integrated Guide Tracks Reduce Part Count
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing piezo motors with piezoelectric drives face challenges in precision, efficiency, and manufacturing complexity due to a large number of parts and high overall height, requiring a design that is both easy to assemble and maintain high precision with fewer components.
Innovation Solution
A piezo motor design featuring a holder with clamping jaws and planar guide tracks, along with thrust pieces and spring-elastic sections, which allows for precise force transfer and automatic tolerance compensation, reducing the number of parts and overall height while maintaining high precision and ease of assembly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If a traditional multi-part frame structure with multiple bearing elements is used, then the motor achieves sufficient precision and stability, but the device complexity and manufacturing difficulty increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple separate components (frame parts, bearing elements, guide structures) into an integrated housing structure with built-in guide tracks. The housing itself provides both structural support and guiding functions, eliminating the need for separate frame assemblies and reducing the total number of parts while maintaining precision requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The housing is designed to perform multiple functions simultaneously: it provides structural support, guides the friction element's movement, supports the piezo actuator, and maintains precise positioning. This multi-functional design replaces what would traditionally require multiple specialized components.
2Manufacturing precision
If a stable frame structure with multiple components is used, then the motor maintains high precision, but the assembly process becomes complex and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
By integrating guide tracks directly into the housing structure and combining support and guiding functions into single components, the patent reduces the number of assembly steps. The friction element and piezo actuator can be installed directly into the integrated housing without requiring separate assembly of frame parts and bearing elements.
3Manufacturing precision
If traditional bearing arrangements with multiple components are used, then the motor achieves sufficient precision, but the overall height of the motor increases considerably
Solution Approach 1:
The guide tracks are integrated within the housing structure itself, with the friction element moving along tracks that are formed as part of the housing's internal geometry. This nesting of guiding functions within the existing structural volume eliminates the need for additional external bearing assemblies that would increase overall height.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a multi-dimensional assembly of separate bearing elements distributed throughout the structure to a two-dimensional guide track system integrated into the housing's internal surfaces. This dimensional reorganization maintains precision while minimizing the vertical footprint of the motor.
4Ease of manufacture
If a simplified design with fewer parts is used, then the assembly process is easier and manufacturing is simpler, but the precision and stability may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The housing incorporates locally optimized guide track geometries and surface finishes in critical areas to ensure precise movement of the friction element. By concentrating precision features only where needed rather than throughout the entire structure, the design maintains high precision with fewer overall components.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The design achieves high precision and efficiency with fewer components, simplifying assembly and reducing the overall height of the motor, while ensuring precise movement and minimizing friction, thus enhancing the motor's operational capabilities.
Implementation Method 1
By applying a defined electrical voltage or an excitation voltage to the electrodes, targeted periodic deformations of the piezo actuator occur at a specific frequency. Since the frequency of these periodic deformations is in the ultrasonic range, such piezo motors are also referred to as ultrasonic motors.
Implementation Method 2
Under the pressure of the spring-elastic sections of the housing, the thrust pieces press the bearing elements against the clamping jaws
Data Source
AI summary
The invention comprises a piezo motor with a U-shaped housing lower part and a mounted cover. The piezo actuator is mounted between two clamping jaws. Planar guide tracks are formed in the housing lower part to both sides of the piezo actuator. Bearing elements of circular cross-section are arranged between the clamping jaws and the guide tracks. Thrust pieces are braced between the housing cover and the bearing elements, which thrust pieces press the bearing elements against the clamping jaws. Here, the thrust pieces together with the guide tracks of the housing lower part form V-shaped guides.