Characteristics of a PZT-Driven Micro Depth Adjustment Device for Cutting Coated Film

This study aims to develop a PZT ‐driven depth adjustment device with a flexure hinge and to investigate its static/dynamic characteristics. This device will be applied to rapidly and accurately trace a flat surface with slight waviness of up to several hundreds of micrometers in magnitude. One typical example is to cut a film coated on a steel plate. A depth control system composed of PMAC, PZT/PZT amplifier, flexure hinge/knife, and laser displacement sensor is implemented on a desktop three‐axis machine and an actual cutting test is conducted on a steel workpiece with a sinusoidal ‐wavy surface. It is verified that the dynamic characteristics of the device limit the maximum cutting speed and depth precision. Received 21 October 2014Revised 1 December 2014Accepted 3 December 2014