Highest repetition rates, reliable operation, and customizable design are strengths of PI’s newest piezo ceramic actuators.

Auburn, MA - PI, a global leader in piezo technology and motion control, offers high-speed actuators for micro- and nano-dispensing applications. Both standard and custom-designed actuators are available. All actuators are based on PI's in-house manufactured PICMA® piezoceramic drives. These drives are extremely reliable and underwent 100 billion cycles during life cycle testing by NASA before being employed on the Mars Mission.

PI's dispensing actuators are available as bare piezo stacks and in highly customized forms with motion amplifiers and integrated sensors. Standard stacks provide a travel range of 30µm, and motion-amplified actuators can reach hundreds of microns while still providing sub-millisecond responsiveness.

Why Nano-Dispensing?
Accurate dispensing of bio-medical substances or highly viscous liquids, like sealants, glues, or solder pastes, can boost the efficiency of production lines while meeting the quality demands of small-scale components. Piezo-driven mechanisms excel in this role: they produce rapid, dynamic actions coupled with considerable force. his makes them exceptionally apt for valve-actuation or the non-contact distribution of ultra-fine droplets, enabling consistent quality and highest throughput.

Why Ultrafast Piezo Technology?
Piezoceramic actuators are renowned for their rapid response times and are capable of dynamic movements at frequencies up to several kHz, with motion resolution down to the sub-nanometer range. Their motion is based on molecular effects, and the solid-state design excludes traditional moving parts and gears, rendering them maintenance-free. This is only one of the advantages stemming from the inverse piezoelectric effect in their crystalline structure, which operates without any friction-inducing elements. Piezo actuators are also notably energy-efficient, as they do not consume electricity when idle. Such features make them highly adaptable for a variety of applications. For example, in process technology, they facilitate quick dosing cycles, offering finely adjustable and precisely controllable travel ranges essential for dosing processes.

More information on high-speed dispensing actuators