Bending Valve Actuator

For over 10 years we have been producing and delivering a packaged cantilever-beam actuator for the use in a valve.  Like all of our OEM customers, the design of this actuator came about after working hand-in-hand with our customer.

Challenges of Solenoids 

Typical pneumatic valves utilize a dual solenoid design, but solenoids have a number of shortcomings. Our customer knew a piezoelectric solution would meet all of their critical needs, because;

• Piezos have no audible noise
• Piezos have a much faster response time, less than 10 ms
• Piezos require much less power and are capable of holding a position with virtually no additional power consumption
• Piezos require less space with a thinner form factor
• Piezos are an order of magnitude lighter
• Piezos can be proportionally controlled, not just the binary on/off characteristics of solenoids

The Solution

Our final design delivered a proprietary packaged piezo pneumatic valve that included a packaged resistor for electrically protecting both the drive circuit and the piezo.  This was achieved by encapsulating the raw piezoelectric ceramic between layers of flexible circuits, enabling;

• A hermetical seal around the wafers – eliminating the moisture issue
• An electrical connection to the wafers – eliminating the need for solder
• The design to include features to ease mechanical integration
• Flat & flexible circuits – making sealing easy and repeatable