Excellent Guiding Accuracy Through Flexure Joints

Integrated Guiding, Motion Amplifier and Preload

In nanopositioning technology, flexure guides have proved to be suitable for positioning tasks of up to several millimeters. The motion of a flexure joint is based on the elastic deformation of a solid. This avoids any static, rolling or sliding friction.

Characteristics

Their advantages are the high stiffness, load capacity, and wear resistance. Flexures are maintenance-free, can be manufactured from nonmagnetic materials , do not require lubricants or consumables and hence also function, without any problem, in a vacuum.

Flexures as Levers

The travel range of a piezo actuator can also be multiplied by integrating a lever mechanism. The actuator is mechanically integrated in a flexure joint in such a way that the travel range is extended to up to 2 mm. Since simple lever structures lose a considerable amount of guiding accuracy and stiffness, however, the design requires much more complex geometries.

Subnanometer Accuracy

Flexures allow motions with extremely high path accuracy. To compensate for height or transversal offset, PI has developed special multi-link flexure guides. These guiding systems, which are used in most nanopositioning systems from PI, allow a flatness and straightness in the subnanometer or microradian range.

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Positioning system based on piezoelectric actuators with a travel range of up to 250 µm and a repeatability of around 1 nm.

Linear Piezo Flexure Stages

Piezo Flexure Tilting Mirrors

Piezo Flexure Tilting Mirrors

XY Piezo Flexure Stages

XY Piezo Flexure Stages

XYZ Piezo Flexure Scanners

XYZ Piezo Flexure Scanners

3-Axis Nanopositioning Scanners of Maximum Precision

Downloads

Catalog

Technology: Piezo Actuators with Guiding and Preload

Version / Date
TEC72 2017-10
pdf - 371 KB
English
Catalog

Excellent Guiding Accuracy through Flexures

Version / Date
TEC64 2017-10
pdf - 424 KB
English