• Transactions of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.137-143
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• 2009

This paper presents the fabrication of inchworm motor for high precision actuator system of large displacement and high force. The inchworm motor consists of a extend actuator that provides displacement of tool guide and two clamping actuators which provide the holding force. In order to avoid the PZT fracture, design of pre-load housing was conducted by flexure hinge structure, because PZT actuator has low tensile and shear. To design the pre-load housing and optimize the clamping mechanism, the static and dynamic analysis were conducted by finite element method. From these results, a prototype of the inchworm motor was fabricated and dynamic characteristic with respect to the various frequency was tested. The maximum velocity of the inchworm motor was $41.1{\mu}m/s$ at 16Hz.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.21 no.12
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• pp.174-181
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• 2004

Ultra precision positioning mechanism has widely been used on semiconductor manufacturing equipments, optical spectrum analyzer and cell manipulations. Ultra precision positioning mechanism is consisted of several actuators, sensors, guides and control systems. Its efficiency depends on each performance of components. The object of this study is to design, analysis and manufacture all of the inchworm linear motor system, which is one of the equipments embodied in ultra precision positioning mechanism. Inchworm linear motor system is consisted of a controller system and an inchworm linear motor, and its driving form is similar to a motion of spanworm. A design and manufacture of inchworm linear motor, which is consisted of three PZT actuators, a rod, two columns and a guide plate, are performed. Minimizing the von-Mises stress of the hinge using Taguchi method and simulation by FEM software optimizes the structural design in a column of flexure hinge. The designed columns and guide plates are manufactured by a W-EDM and NC-milling. A controller system, which is an apparatus to drive inchworm linear motor, can easily adjust driving conditions by varying resonance frequency and input-output voltage of actuators and amplifiers. The performance of manufactured inchworm linear motor system is verified and valuated. In the future, inchworm linear motor system will be used to make a more precision positioning by reinforcing a sensor and feedback system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.1041-1044
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• 2002

Inchworm linear motor is one of the ultra precision position apparatuses and has many kinds of forms and structures according to the conditions of working space and range. In this paper, the Inchworm linear motor consists of three PZTs(Piezo-electric transducer), three columns ma two plates. finite element method was used to determine the type or hinges installed in column of inchworm linear motor DOE(Design of experiment) was used to determine the optimal design condition of a column by comparing the von-mises stresses according to the change of thickness of hinge, round of hinge, height of arm, angle of v-notch, round of v-notch and thickness of column. From the result, round of hinge, height of arm and thickness of hinge were determined a effective design parameters.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.178-182
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• 2007

Precision stages are essential device for micro machines, fiber optic assembly systems, and biology instruments. In this paper, a precision inchworm type actuator for a linear stage is proposed and evaluated. An analytic method to design an inchworm type motor is proposed. Developed actuator provides fast motion compared with a commercial inchworm actuator, and can be used as an actuator for a stage in substitution for a conventional rotary actuator.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1997.10a
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• pp.1088-1091
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• 1997

This paper describes the characteristic of hinges on which a lever pivots within a limited angle due to the torque. The hinges are exerted by the thermally expanded actuators connected with a level through hinges. To enhance the stroke of inchworm actuator, FEM(Finite Element Method) was utilized for the characterization in view of stress displacement according to the variation of notch radius and notch width. As a result, notch width of the hinges plays an important part in improvement of micro inchworm actuator.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1995.10a
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• pp.458-461
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• 1995

A new type of rotational motor which is developed has a resolution smaller than 10 $^{-4}$ radian and can be accessed for full rotational angles. The operation principle of the motor is based on inchworm motion of two belt driving mechanism. Flexure hinge mechanism, which is pertinent to symmetry construction of the motor, is designed to minimze the effort to frame and is analyzed by using finite element method. Depending on input signal amplitude, rotational angle by one cycle is varied form 0.2*10 $^{-4}$ rad to 9.76* $^{-4}$ rad. This shows that it has the capability of getting very small rotational angle by considering radius of rotor and amplitude of input signal.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.1841-1844
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• 2005

A linear motor makes a long stroke by accumulating short steps, which is based on the quasistatic deformation of a magnetostrictive material in a magnetic field. It's also called as inchworm effect. The application areas of linear motors are an adaptive and active optics, X-Y positioning, precision alignment, etc. It is found that control of the frequency and current inputs are all that is necessary to control the speed handling ability of the linear motor. In inchworm mode, linear speeds of up to $500{\mu}m/s$ are achieved resulting from the accumulation of $25{\mu}m$ steps at 1.4A.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.152-157
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• 2001

An ultraprecision rotary motor is developed using inchworm motion of two belts actuated by elongation of piezoelectric elements. A symmetric lever mechanism with flexure hinges is designed to connect belts with piezoelectric elements. The lever mechanism is used not only to amplify the elongation of piezoelectric element but also to minimize the numbers of components and the effort for assembly. By experiment, the rotational angle by one cycle is varied from $0.2{\times}10-4 rad to 9.76{\times}10-4$ rad depending on input signal amplitude. Further, the motor has the capability of getting more precise rotational resolution by enlarging the radius of the rotor.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.228.2-228.2
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Machine Tool Engineers Conference
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• 2005.05a
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• pp.458-461
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• 2005

In this paper, a new type of inchworm motion actuator is developed in fabrication of actuators for micro-press machine. This is consisted of three piezoelectric actuators, one is for moving the tool guide and the other are for clamping the guide. The inchworm motor provides both high load and large displacement in small size actuator. PZT has compressive strength and often fails under tensile stress and pulling. Thus, in order to prevent failure, we have designed pre-load housing and accomplished FEM analysis. The pre-load housing was used for determining the optimal design condition by comparing the von-mises stresses with the change of hinge stiffness. Also, in order to predict the performance of the motor under certain conditions, the system model was simulated using MATLAB. This is open loop control actuator and driven by the period of input voltage.