Ultrasonic Motors - The Future of Precision Engineering

An ultrasonic motor is a type of piezoelectric motor powered by the ultrasonic vibration of a component, the stator, placed against another component, the rotor or slider. Let's see how it works:

Sources & Credits:

[lukeskywalker]

It is the first time I hear about USM. Thanks for the enlightenment.

[jdrissel]

I remember when they began to use these motors for focusing lenses for SLR cameras. It was a big deal that the lens could focus without making noise or vibrations that impacted the picture or the sound.

[riderinsanjose]

This has got to be the most well done video I've seen in a *long time. It's extremely informative. The visuals are top-notch. Especially the employment of the motor in the camera lens. Your voice is a pleasure to listen to. I've been involved with machines in semiconductor manufacturing that used piezo drivers (deflection only) that were 'stepped down' using flexors, to position optical elements to wavelengths of light.
I wish I can somehow get this video nominated for an award. It truly deserves it.
My sincere Thank You for all those involved in this production.

[XeryonPrecision]

Great video - thanks for featuring us at 3:46!

Many engineers and scientists are familiar with traditional piezo inertia or stick-slip motors, often used in ultra-precise applications with very limited travel. But fewer know about ultrasonic piezo motors. We're working to change that.

Ultrasonic piezo motors deliver nearly all the benefits of traditional piezo systems (precision, compactness) while overcoming their key limitations: limited speed, stroke, lifetime, and audible noise.

At the same time, ultrasonic piezo is emerging as a strong alternative to electromagnetic actuators such as linear motors, voice coils, and stepper motors. These technologies are approaching their miniaturization limits and typically require continuous power to maintain position, unlike piezo.

P.S. Happy to send you a free sample if you’d like to try one out - just let us know. 🙂

[dmytroi]

Quartz doesn't vibrate when current is applied. But its shape can be tuned for certain frequency (not only 32kHz), so it will have resonance on it. But it still requires external components to be able to resonate

[themacker]

Thanks. Very fascinating to see it's already been used for quite a while, and that it doesn't scale up well.

[overtoke]

"you are probably utilizing quartz" - yes... your phone, your computer, rc toys. your network card? your router? they all have their own sets of timing chips too.

[zimelo]

3:05, 4:04

I think you're using the word incorrectly here. "Infamous" actually means "famous for something negative/bad".

[markos.]

Gotta be honest. Videos from this channel has been reccomended to my timeline multiple times but I genuinely thought this was one of those AI voice/generated channel but no I was quite relived to see a person behind the talking. Not to mention this is a great topic! Cheers man

[ВладимирСергеев-тм]

Пьезомембраны в резонансной частоте лучше применять как генераторы в самовозбуждающихся аккустических системах динамик - микрофон, рабочая среда бетонные пустотелые тунели для метро с постоянным движением поездов, шум от которых можно использовать как генератор

[Somun-a]

Unless you really mean it (which would be incorrect), the wording around 0:50 sounded like the quartz material has a natural 32 kHz oscillation frequency. So maybe add a note or something to clarify that it was for a specific component that is tuned for 32 kHz and not an inherent property of the material.

[Chef_PC]

Infamous. "It doesn't mean what you think it means."

[fluiditynz]

It's the Piezo electric motor. I'm not the one who brought it to market but I did have the idea for it back almost 40 years ago. An invention requires just an inventive person with great research skills and publicity of adjacent technologies so that an inventor personality can make the leap and prove to non-inventors that the concept is viable. The production of these piezo motors was made practicable by the newer inventor by sourcing piezoelectric surface mounted chips. Congratulations to him for pushing it to commercial viability. It's possibly the same SMS piezo components that were sourced by the company making vibrating PC cooling fans a few years ago. There's another technology that is vastly more commercially viable that I invented when I was in my late teen years that's still not been brought to production by any body. It's a lot more practical to manufacture in today's world than back then but it's still beyond home builders due to the fine scale manufacture required.

[beautifulsmall]

0:55 the tuning fork should vibrate with the prongs in antiphase. Otherwise nice coverage.

[scottstensland]

when they say pizeo linear 1D actuators will not scale up in size yes however take pause to consider just what muscles consist of ... tiny protein molecules which can only on demand shorten in length then relax ... muscles are an aggregate of countless of these tiny molecular motors ... I see a future where countless pizeo 1D actuators can be layered end to end in length and stacked up in 3D to act in unison to become extremely accurate super strong when setup in opposing pairs just as muscles in your body ... excellent field of study

[LeicaM]

Prof. Lothar Kiesewetter invented that type of motor. Canon used them in their autofokus lenses for about 35 years now.😅

[josejesusamayz]

Gran video y excelente audio en español. Gracias

[gandalfthegrey]

I had no idea what you looked like, ngl. Cool to see you put yourself on the big screen though!

[ba]

Ultrasonic linear actuators exist with precisions of nanometers but strokes of cm with speeds of cm/s.

[chrisparker]

i bet this kind of motor could be used in 3D printing to counteract the wave patterns that appear.