Stick–slip and slip–slip operation of piezoelectric inertia drives. Part I: Ideal excitation

Piezoelectric inertia motors, also known as “stick–slip drives”, use the inertia of a body to drive it in small steps by means of a friction contact. While these steps are classically assumed to involve stiction and sliding, the motors can also operate in “slip–slip” mode without any phase of static friction. This contribution provides a systematic investigation and performance comparison of different stick–slip and slip–slip modes of operation. Different criteria for comparing the motional performance of inertia motors are defined: Steady state velocity, smoothness of motion, and start-up time. Using the example of a translational inertia motor excited by an ideal displacement signal, it is found that the maximum velocity reachable in stick–slip operation is limited principally, while continuous slip–slip operation allows very high velocities. For the investigated driving signals, the motor velocity is proportional to the square root of the actuator stroke. The motor performance with these ideal signals defines an upper boundary for the performance of real motors.

► Ideal excitation signals for maximum velocity of inertia motors are defined.
► Performance criteria for inertia motors are defined.
► Inertia motors can only achieve very high velocities in continuous slip–slip mode.
► Ideal performance defines an upper boundary for the performance of real motors.