Resonant-Type Piezoelectric Screw Motor for One Degree of Freedom Positioning Platform Application

A resonant-type piezoelectric screw motor for one degree of freedom (1-DOF) positioning platform is proposed, fabricated, and investigated in this article. The motor comprises a driver and a screw rod. The driver is composed of four transducers, a nut seat, and a flange nut. The flange nut is bolted connected on the nut seat, and the four piezoelectric transducers are connected with the nut seat by right-angle flexible hinges. Each piezoelectric transducer comprises two piezoelectric stacks and one displacement amplifier. Driven by the four piezoelectric transducers, elliptical vibration is generated by the driver, which is used to actuate the screw rod to realize the linear movement. The driver is analyzed using the finite element analysis software ANSYS. The proposed motor and positioning platform prototype are manufactured, assembled, and tested. The performance of the developed piezoelectric screw motor shows its applicability and effectiveness for the 1-DOF positioning platform with a large force. Experiments demonstrate that the maximum velocity of this motor is 10.53 mm/s without mechanical load and the maximum output force of the platform can reach 17.19 N when the excitation voltage is 230 at 365 Hz.