tiny, powerful motors

[BuzzKillington]

http://www.newscaletech.com/squiggle_overview.html

Kind of interesting. I wish the article was more in depth... I'd like to see charts and stuff showing how much more effective it is vs other small motors yada yada.

[SXRguyinMA]

seem pretty neat

[DaveW]

That's a great find! As soon as I saw it, it seemed so obvious. As most new technology does.


Piezoelectric actuators change shape when electrically excited. A SQUIGGLE motor consists of several piezoelectric ceramic actuators attached to a threaded nut, with a mating threaded screw inside.

Applying power to the actuators creates ultrasonic vibrations, causing the nut to vibrate in an orbit - similar to a person’s hips in a “Hula Hoop.”

The rotating nut turns the threaded screw, creating a smooth in-and-out linear motion. Thread friction drives the shaft, directly converting rotary motion to linear motion.

Which is perfect for the kinds of things that we'd want to do...In most cases, we have to build linear actuators! I wonder just how cheaply these can be made? In theory, very cheap. However, in theory motors would be very cheap too.

They make a lot of statements about how resilient they are-"hey, it's resistant to cold and EM interference! Doesn't generate an EM field!"

Or, straight from the horse's mouth...


The SQUIGGLE motor generates no magnetic fields. It can be made from non-ferrous metals for use in MRI, scanning electron microscopy and focused ion microscopy applications. We can also make custom SQUIGGLE motors for use in vacuum, UHV and cryogenic environments.

However, I have serious doubts about the ability of the moving parts to last for long. Or, more specifically, I think that small particles could ruin such a motor with ease, and the thread on the bolt could be worn down very quickly. For something like a case door, they would be perfect-for a mission critical application, I'd be very, very sceptical.

All the same, that's a great find and I'm gonna +Rep you for it.

-Dave

[crenn]

I spent some time thinking on how to get one of those motors to do only turning, worked out how to do it with 3. (Ie drive something like a wheel)

[SXRguyinMA]

maybe use one and have it set up like the old steam engines? :think:

http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/steam-engine-model.jpg

[crenn]

I'm not sure if I can get it to do a full cycle in that configuration.

[BuzzKillington]

You could use two half gears that are set up backwards. when one stops catching, the other would catch and continue the work the other was doing except geared for "in" instead of "out."