In this paper, two types of piezoelectric micropumps having high power density are presented, which are applicable to miniature and individual fluid power sources for practical micromachines such as an in-pipe working microrobot and microfactory manuf...
In this paper, two types of piezoelectric micropumps having high power density are presented, which are applicable to miniature and individual fluid power sources for practical micromachines such as an in-pipe working microrobot and microfactory manufacturing mechanical micro parts. First, a piezoelectric micropump using resonance drive is presented. It basically consists of a metal bellows as a reciprocating chamber, a piezoelectric actuator and an additional mass for oscillating the bellows, and two check valves. The small displacement of piezoelectric actuator is magnified through resonance drive of pump driving unit. Pumping characteristics of the fabricated micropump are experimentally investigated and its applications are attempted to the micromachine and micropress. Second, a novel piezoelectric micropump using narrow pipeline element instead of the outlet check valve is presented. It utilizes a fluid inertia effect caused by a fast flow of the pipeline element and achieves a high pumping performance level. Also, its application to robot hand and micro bender is tested.