Kaunas University of Technology INSTITUTE OF PIEZOMECHANICS
The Institute of Piezomechanics was founded in 1999.
The Institute is part of Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania.
The piezomechanics research at our university is counting 30 years of activity.
You can load books on piezoelectric motors, devoted to the first schematics of rotary and
linear piezomotors and several degrees-of-freedom piezoactuators. Director: Prof. Dr. Habil. Ramutis Bansevicius.
PiezoScrew is illustrating the functioning of traveling wave
piezoelectric motor. It was developed in 1980 in Kaunas Polytechnical
Institute (now - Kaunas University of Technology) and was intended to be
used as a high resolution (less than 50 nanometers) linear actuator.
Piezomechanics is considered as a system of Mechatronics, representing a new facet of engineering and design, yielding some devices that are revolutionary in nature. Some concepts, e.g. actuators with an infinite number of degrees of freedom, transmission of energy to actuators through some distance, active bearings, etc., could be described as solutions looking for a problem. In some cases the introduction of piezomechanical systems creates a new synergistic effect and, as in all integrated systems, the problem of maximum interaction between subsystems is the key to optimum design.
PIEZOMECHANICS in Kaunas University of Technology:
1969 - developing the method of vibrations conversion into continuous motion
(Bansevicius and Ragulskis);
1970 - traveling wave vibromotors of linear and rotary motion;
1971 - piezoelectric magnetic tape actuators;
1974 - autonomous linear and rotary piezoelectric motors;
1979 - piezoelectric motors with several degrees of freedom;
1982 - piezoelectric motors with flexible links;
1983 - piezoelectric actuators with separated power and control systems;
1984 - piezoelectric laser scanning devices; piezoelectric robots;
1985 - concept of vibrational energy dissipation by piezoelectric material with
additional electric circuits [Volkovas and Rimsa];
1987 - the concept of composite piezoelectric/magnetostrictive transducers;
application of liquid crystals for visualisation;
1995 - the concept of active bearings, slides and guides;
1996 - visualisation of magnetic fields by composite piezoactive/liquid crystal layers;
1996 - the concepts of Piezomechanics and Adaptive Mechanics;
1997 - composite piezoelectric/electrorheological fluids damping elements;
1998 - porous piezoactive flexible material PVDF/electrorheological fluid damping composites;
2001 - the application of piezotransformers for rheology characteristic's measurements.