The Advantages of Being Small

The demand for the smallest possible positioners and manipulators is increasing. Industrial microassembly, photonics as well as laser and optical metrology or research institutes with ultra-high vacuum conditions and strong magnetic fields need even smaller, high precision positioning systems. Commercial applications developed from research at universities also have similar requirements. Typical examples for this are measuring and medical technology devices, in particular when they are intended for mobile use. Positioning systems based on piezo inertia drives open up interesting possibilities here. In miniaturized design, they offer a high resolution at theoretically unlimited travel ranges, are self-locking and on top of that, they are also inexpensive.