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US 7,078,846 B2Granted
Rotary actuator and method of controlling an actuator
AssigneeMitsuba Corporation
InventorsMichio Tsukui, Kenji Sutou, Yuko Kawakura
Life of this patent
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AssigneeMitsuba Corporation
InventorsMichio Tsukui, Kenji Sutou, Yuko Kawakura
Estimating the term…
A piezoelectric drive body is secured to a shaft that is rotatably supported by a holder. A leaf spring is fastened to the upper end of the holder and is in resilient contact with the upper end of the shaft. Friction between the shaft and the leaf spring acts as a rotation-suppressing force on the shaft. When a sawtooth-waveform voltage is applied to the drive body, the drive body vibrates to the right and left. The drive body rotates around the shaft in a specific direction, due to the difference in inertial force resulting from the difference in the deforming speed of the body. The voltage linearly rises and falls repeatedly or has a sinusoidal waveform. In either case, the voltage rises from a minimum to a maximum for time T1 and falls from the maximum to the minimum for time T2 that is different from time T1.
A method of controlling an actuator having a drive body which includes an electromechanical transducer that is operable to vibrate when a change of a voltage is applied thereto, a shaft member on which said drive body is mounted, a bearing section for supporting said shaft member and allowing said shaft member to rotate, and a resistance member for applying a rotation-suppressing force to said shaft member to suppress rotation of said shaft member, the method comprising:
A method of controlling an actuator having a drive body which includes an electromechanical transducer that is operable to vibrate when a change of a voltage is applied thereto, a shaft member on which said drive body is mounted, a bearing section for supporting said shaft member and allowing said shaft member to rotate, and a resistance member for applying a rotation-suppressing force to said shaft member to suppress rotation of said shaft member, the method comprising:
A method of controlling an actuator having a drive body which includes an electromechanical transducer that is operable to vibrate when a change of a voltage is applied thereto, a shaft member on which said drive body is mounted, a bearing section for supporting said shaft member and allowing said shaft member to rotate, and a resistance member for applying a rotation-suppressing force to said shaft member to suppress rotation of said shaft member, the method comprising:
A method of controlling an actuator having a drive body which includes an electromechanical transducer that is operable to vibrate when a change of a voltage is applied thereto, a shaft member on which said drive body is mounted, a bearing section for supporting said shaft member and allowing said shaft member to rotate, and a resistance member for applying a rotation-suppressing force to said shaft member to suppress rotation of said shaft member, the method comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.