BENDING AND EXPANDING MOTION ACTUATORS

Two types of bending: and expanding motion actuators which are compose d of multilayered PZT unimorph cells have been developed. Each PZT uni morph cell's electrode is divided into three sectors and the facing se ctors are connected to one another. The bending and expanding motion a ctuator (8 tnm in diameter, 9.2 mm in length), which has three pillars on the PZT side of the unimorph cell and one pillar on the metal side , respectively, achieves a bending angle of 4.5 degrees, and the expan sion displacement is 610 mu m with 100 V. The resonance frequency is 1 40 Hz with 25 V. Multidirectional bending is realized by controlling t he driving voltage of each sector.