A low-profile flexural displacement-converter mechanism for piezoelectric stack actuators

Abstract A thin flexure-based mechanism is proposed that is useful in applications with limited build space. The proposed mechanism converts the initial in-plane motion of two piezoelectric stack actuators to an out-of-plane translational motion. Two actuators in the symmetric design of the proposed APA can be used to ensure a pure translation output motion. A Finite Element (FE) model is used to analyze the rigid multibody model of the proposed mechanism. The rigid multibody model is used to design the desired flexural mechanism in a three-dimensional space. The proposed design is then manufactured and is subjected to an experimental study. Measurements validate the performance of the proposed design with an error of less than 15%. A parametric study on the effect of the applied voltage to the actuators of the proposed mechanism reveals good agreement between the numerical model and the manufactured mechanism.