Provided is a piezoelectric valve in which the valve is opened/closed utilizing a displacement of a laminated piezoelectric element, including: a valve main body having a gas pressure chamber that receives compressed gas supplied externally; and an actuator having a valving element, the laminated piezoelectric element that generates a driving force required for operating the valving element as the displacement, and a displacement enlarging mechanism that enlarges the displacement of the laminated piezoelectric element to be acted on the valving element, the actuator being disposed in the valve main body, in which a surface of the laminated piezoelectric element is coated with silicone in a state in which the laminated piezoelectric element is integrated into the actuator.

Provided is a vibration wave motor, including: a vibrator including a piezoelectric element and a vibrating plate; a friction member, which includes a friction-contact surface to be brought into contact with the vibrator, and is configured to perform relative movement with respect to the vibrator by vibration generated by the vibrator; and a guide mechanism, which includes a first guide member, a second guide member, and a rolling member arranged between the first guide member and the second guide member, and is configured to guide the relative movement, wherein the first guide member includes a groove portion formed of a first surface and a second surface to be brought into contact with the rolling member, and wherein the first surface is longer than the second surface in a direction of the relative movement.

A camera includes a camera focus adjustment device, a lens, and an image sensor coupled to the camera focus adjustment device. The camera focus adjustment device includes a flexure structure. The flexure structure includes an outer framework of structural members continuously interconnected by flexure notch hinges. The flexure structure also includes two inner structural members oriented in parallel and extending from the outer framework of structural members. A gap is between the two inner structural members. The camera focus adjustment device also includes a piezoelectric material within the gap and a pair of wedges within the gap. The pair of wedges is affixed to the piezoelectric material and to one inner structural member of the two inner structural members. Based on temperature-based piezoelectric activity associated with the piezoelectric material, the camera focus adjustment device is operable to move the image sensor relative to the lens.

The invention discloses a differential compliant displacement reducer, and relates to three technical solutions with similar working principles. The three technical solutions have the following characteristics: firstly, the three technical solutions all relate to an outer frame and all belong to a differential compliant displacement reducer circumferentially formed by extending upward and downward along both ends of the driver, and the working principle is similar; secondly, the differential motion of the three technical solutions comes from the difference caused by deformation of the upper and lower or inclined upper and lower deformable parts of the driver in the differential compliant displacement reducer; thirdly, compared with a traditional displacement amplifier, the three technical solutions all belong to the displacement reducer, the structure is simpler than that of the existing displacement amplifier; and fourthly, the three technical solutions can be matched with a macro-motion platform.

A frame for an energy transducer device for generating electrical current, the frame being a single monolithic structure including a pressure receiver unit, a first arm and a second arm joined to respective lateral sides of the pressure receiver unit, a first attachment unit joined to the second end of the first arm, and a second attachment unit joined to the second end of the second arm. The frame is configured to be joined to a current generating unit, such that the first attachment unit is joined to a first edge of the current generating unit while the second attachment unit is joined to second edge of the current generating element. An external force applied at the pressure receiver unit of the frame causes the frame to deform and thereby change the mechanical strain of the current generating element.

The invention relates to a method for activating at least one portion, to be specific a change portion, of an electromechanical element (3), comprising the following steps: providing an electromechanical element, wherein at least the change portion has at least two electrodes, which are spaced apart from one another, and arranged between the electrodes a polycrystalline and ferroelectric or ferroelectric-piezoelectric material with a multiplicity of domains, wherein, in an initial state, at least some of the domains have directions of polarization that are different from one another; generating an electrical field between the electrodes of the change portion by applying an electrical voltage in the form of at least one voltage pulse with a defined amplitude and a defined duration; transforming some of the domains with directions of polarization that are different from one another into a state of the same direction of polarization as a result of the at least one voltage pulse, and thereby producing an increase in the extent of the electromechanical element along a direction of extent V that is defined and persists without the presence of an electrical voltage, or transforming some of the domains with the same direction of polarization into a state with directions of polarization that differ from one another as a result of the at least one voltage pulse, and thereby producing a decrease in the extent of the electromechanical element along the direction of extent V that is defined and persists without the presence of an electrical voltage. The invention also relates to the use of an electromechanical element activated by this method as an adjusting element and to the arrangement of an electromechanical element activated by this method between two elements (1, 2) that are to be moved with respect to one another.

For tuning a vibrating conveyor having an electric vibrator that drives a vibration element connected to a conveying unit of the vibrating conveyor for oscillating the conveying unit to a mechanical resonance frequency f.sub.R of the vibrating conveyor, an electric drive unit varies the frequency f.sub.v of a AC drive voltage (u.sub.v) in a given frequency range, measures a current consumption of the electric vibrator unit for different applied frequencies f.sub.v of the AC drive voltage (u.sub.v) and using the frequency f.sub.v with the lowest current consumption of the electric vibrator unit as frequency f.sub.v of the AC drive voltage (u.sub.v) for operating the vibrating conveyor.

Exemplary practice of the present invention provides a magnetostrictive actuator characterized by linear force output and uniform magnetic biasing. A center bias magnet combined with a flux transfer tube produces a uniform magnetic bias down the length of a magnetostrictive component. Depending on the inventive embodiment, the magnetostrictive component may include one magnetostrictive element or a pair of collinear magnetostrictive elements. A center bias magnet, in combination with a flux transfer tube, drives magnetic flux through the magnetostrictive component (e.g., a series of magnetostrictive rods) in opposite directions, while surrounding drive coils apply flux in the same direction through the magnetostrictive component. The net response is substantially linear with respect to the drive coil current. The flux transfer tube applies distributed magnetic flux to the magnetostrictive component at a rate that ensures uniform magnetic flux density down the length of the magnetostrictive component.

The invention relates to a stroke transmitter for an actuator device. The stroke transmitter comprises a first and a second conversion unit, which are mechanically connected to one another in series, wherein the first conversion unit is designed as a hydraulic conversion unit, it can be connected to an actuator on its drive side and it is connected to the drive side of the second conversion unit on its output side, wherein the second conversion unit is designed as a cable system and has an output element on its output side. The invention also relates to an actuator device comprising an actuator and a stroke transmitter mechanically connected in series with the actuator.

A pressure control valve has: a passageway having a flow opening; an member displaceable relative to the opening for obstructing the opening by differing amounts; a piezo actuator; and a linkage mechanism adapted to amplify a dimensional change in the piezo actuator and to use the amplified dimensional change to displace the member relative to the opening, wherein the linkage mechanism comprises a frame attached to a wall and fixed at a first end in relation to the passageway, a portion of the frame moveable in a first direction while being substantially restrained in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction, the piezo actuator extending between the wall and the movable portion such that an expansion of the piezo actuator results in movement of the movable portion in the first direction by an amount greater than the expansion of the piezo actuator, the moveable portion connected to the member.