Sonic & ultrasonic transducers are electro-mechanical or electro-acoustic converters. They transform electric energy into vibrations, which are used to generate mechanical, acoustic or even thermal power. Sonic transducers operate at audible frequencies, while ultrasounds operate at 20kHz or above. Transducers are often reciprocal devices: Most transducers can operate as sensors or generators exploiting mecano-electric conversion. This section introduces only actuation or emission modes. Conversion in such transducers is generally based on piezoelectric, magnetostrictive or magnetic forces.
The most conventional approach consists in using such forces to excite a mechanical resonance. For the same electric excitation, the vibration at resonance is the low frequency vibration multiplied by the mechanical Quality factor at resonance. This allows to achieve a good efficiency and reduced excitation voltages. The alternative way is to generate forced vibrations. Forced vibrations lead to large frequency bandwidth and are much less sensitive to load variations.
The usual ultrasonic transducers also called industrial ultrasonic processors are resonant structures typically based on 3 half-wave length resonators : a piezo converter, a booster and a sonotrode. They are used for ultrasonic welding, milling, cleaning, nebulization or ultrasonic assistance in drilling, extrusion, homogeneisation, filter declogging… CEDRAT TECHNOLOGIES can define solutions using standard transducers. Customisation is often required to adapt the sonotrode to the load as shown below.
A new approach consists in using new active materials such as multilayer piezo ceramics (MLA) or giant magnetostrictive materials (GMM). These are used to build low frequency resonant transducers in dual-mass Tonpilz structures. Based on pre-stressed MLA, Cedrat PPAs and APA® are relevant sources for ultra-compact resonant transducers because they offer very large dynamic strains (more than 1%) at low voltage (<10V) as in the Water Tracker. In addition, PPAs and APA® offer large strains outside resonance, what allows them to be used for forced vibrations, for example in tribometers, piezo shakers or various vibration assisted processes (glass / metal / composite cutting, drilling, edm ...).
Eventually, magnetic actuators can be considered for low frequencies acoustic sources: CEDRAT TECHNOLOGIES MICAs magnetic actuators offer an interesting alternative to voice coils for higher forces density and for 10 times less heating. Giant Magnetostrictive materials (GMM) are an alternative to piezos for low frequency high power transducers (sonar).
Some examples are given hereafter or in our related publications on sonic or ultrasonic transducers.
SONO : A pilot line of antibacterial medical textiles based on a sonochemical process
|
| Description: |
The SONO project aims at developing a pilot line of antibacterial and antifungal medical textiles based on a sonochemical process patented at BIU laboratories. CEDRAT TECHNOLOGIES will develop the mechatronic hardware for this pilot line including the transducers. |
|
| Applications: |
Ultrasonic transducer ; Piezoelectric ; Magnetostrictive ; Sonochemical reactor ; medical textile |
| Status: |
Concept |
|
Avibus project:Drilling with Vibration Assistance by Piezoelectric Actuators
|
| Description: |
The AVIBUS R&D project (Drilling with Vibration Assistance by Piezoelectric Actuators) coordinated by CEDRAT TECHNOLOGIES aims at developing vibrating, active, auto-adaptive tool-holders for the drilling of various materials as well as the associated process. |
|
| Applications: |
Machine tool, cutting, drilling, milling ; improvement of quality and speed process |
| Status: |
Concept |
|
Sonic & Ultrasonic assistance in machining and production process
|
| Description: |
In machining, cutting or drilling operation, vibrations reduce the friction rate between bodies in relative motion. Piezo actuators or transducers operating either in forced or ultrasonic resonant mode can improve the process speed and quality. |
|
| Applications: |
Machine tool, cutting, drilling, milling ; improvement of quality and speed process |
| Status: |
Prototype |
|
Ultrasonic Transducers Modelling & Design & Prototyping
|
| Description: |
For applications requiring high ultrasonic power, standard solutions cannot be used directly. It is important to design the appropriate sonotrode to tune the transducer and the load. ATILA FEM can help in such design and to make worrking transducers. |
|
| Applications: |
Welding, cutting, homogenizing, emulsifying, ultrasonic cleaning, aerosol generation |
| Status: |
Prototype |
|
Water Tracker long range low frequency sonic transducer
|
| Description: |
WATER TRACKER tracks and localizes urban water pipes using acoustic waves. The WATER TRACKER emitter is an APA®-based transducer operating at low frequency with high amplitude vibrations for long range sound emission. |
|
| Applications: |
Sound emission, High Power sonar Transducer, acoustic localization |
| Status: |
Product |
|
SONOPLAST European project for ultrasonic assistance in micro-manufacturing
|
| Description: |
The goal of Sonoplast FP7 project is to develop an innovative process using ultrasound for polymere micro injections, in order to manufacture high precision micro-parts (<10gr). Cedrat is in charge of ultrasonics. http://www.sonoplast.eu
|
|
| Applications: |
Micro injection, molding machine, polymere, micro-part, European FP7 project |
| Status: |
Prototype |
|
CHAMELEON European Project for Adaptive Machine Tool
|
| Description: |
The goal of CHAMELEON FP7 project is to develop Production Dependent Adaptive Machine Tool. The main idea is to equip machine-tools with a variety of active intelligent devices, allowing to change the overall configuration and performances. |
|
| Applications: |
Adaptive Machine Tool ; vibration control ; ultrasonic assistance ; drilling ; milling |
| Status: |
Concept |
