Development of a resonant type piezoelectric stepping motor using longitudinal and bending hybrid bolt-clamped transducer

Abstract A resonant type piezoelectric stepping motor using a bolt-clamped transducer is proposed and its novel driving method for stepping motion is discussed in this study. The exciting signals used in the driving method consist of several sinusoidal signals and a pause in one driving period, and the two exciting signals applied to the longitudinal PZT plates and bending PZT plates have a phase shift of π/2. The first longitudinal vibration and second bending vibration of the motor are excited and two intermittent reciprocating vibrations along two orthogonal directions are generated on the driving tip to press and drive a linear runner step-by-step, respectively. The proposed motor is designed and its driving method is described. The operating principle of the motor is illustrated by finite element method. A prototype is fabricated and its impedance characteristics are tested to obtain the resonance frequencies. An experimental system is established to test mechanical output characteristics. The results state that the proposed stepping motor outputs a velocity and thrust force of 11.73 mm/s and 18 N under voltage of 200 V p-p . The displacement resolution is tested as 0.26 μm when the voltage and number of sinusoidal signal in one period are 200 V p-p and 1.