Resonant-type inertia linear motor based on the harmonic vibration synthesis of piezoelectric bending actuator

•A piezoelectric inertia linear motor based on the harmonic bending vibration synthesis is proposed.•A piezoelectric bending actuator was designed by using the three modifying methods we studied.•A prototype resonant-type piezoelectric inertia linear motor was designed, fabricated and tested.•The PILM driving mechanism in one period is studied.

Traditional piezoelectric inertia motors are generally driven at the quasi-static frequency range, which results in a relatively slow moving speed. In this paper, a piezoelectric bending actuator was designed for a resonant-type inertia linear motor. The driving mechanism of the actuator was also studied. The actuator's movement in a periodical sawtooth-shaped waveform was generated by composing two sinusoidal resonant bending vibrations with a frequency ratio of 1:2. A prototype inertia motor was fabricated. Experimental results confirmed the effectiveness of the design. The no-load maximum speed was 28.2 mm/s with drive voltage of 300 Vp–p for a base frequency of 587 Hz. At a preload force of 9.6 N and a driving voltage of 400 Vp–p for the base frequency, the linear speed was 18.5 mm/s with 0.02 N drag load. The moving direction could be reversed by changing the driving voltage's phase.