Examining the Piezoelectric Effect - Green Alternative Energy

Alternative energy is an exciting field, one with many cutting edge developments and potential widespread applications. One of these areas is piezoelectricity, which I think more people should learn about. It has the potential to harvest energy in some unique ways.

Piezoelectricity explains a transducer relationship between electric energy and mechanical oscillation. The piezoelectric phenomenon occurs in certain materials that possess the capacity to generate electricity when put through mechanical stress. This material duress-twisting, distorting or compressing-has to be sufficient to deform the crystal structure without fracturing it.

Piezo properties are unique because they can be reversible. This means that materials that exhibit the direct piezoelectric effect, or the generation of electrical energy when mechanical stress is employed, also exhibit the converse piezo effect, the generation of physical tension when an outer electric current is applied.

Piezoelectricity was founded during the nineteenth century by Jacques and Pierre Curie. At the time, they were only 21 and 24 years old. They discovered that quartz crystals created an electric field when stressed on a primary axis. The phrase piezo comes from the Greek; Piezein, which translates to mean “to squeeze or press,” and piezo, meaning “push.”

A piezo motor utilizes the piezoelectric effect, or the tension that allows a multilayered material, like quartz or Rochelle salt, to bend when charged with an electrical current. A piezoelectric motor does not produce or need magnetic fields, and it's not at all affected by them. In that way, the piezo motor performs more accurately than a common electric motor unit. It's very small, extremely strong, quick and has neither rotors nor gears.

I once found an article about a piezo motor that was as tiny as a sugar cube. It could move several centimeters at one time and could carry just about a thousand times its own weight.

The piezoelectric motor was used in microchip development for several years, so this is not a new idea. Zirconate, lead and titanate powders are processed, morphed to shape, fired, charged, polarized, and tested. To attain polarization, electric fields are utilized to position the piezoelectric materials along a primary axis.

This system may seem complex, but the piezo motor works the same way that substances that contain iron are magnetized. After an electrical source is applied, the piezoelectric motor employs its poled ceramic structure to create motion through intermittent, sinusoidal electric fields.

The ceramic edge is coupled with a precision platform, and the resulting power from the piezo motor produces stage motion. Depending how the coupling device is designed, a piezo motor can move both linearly and also in a rotational fashion. The regular nature from the driving current yields infinite travel and clean movement.

The piezoelectric motor continues to be constructed in a variety of ways for a range of uses. The traveling-wave piezo motor is utilized for the auto-focus function in reflex cameras and the inchworm piezo motor moves linearly. Certain piezoelectric motors are utilized in camera sensor displacement technology, enabling anti-shake capabilities.

The piezo motor can be employed in portable products, medical technology products, the automobile sector as well as in digital household electrical devices. The piezoelectric motor has started to become a lot more affordable, even for mass volume uses in high-precision systems.

Although the piezoelectric motor is just one specific application of the piezo phenomenon, many other uses exist. These days, modern piezoelectric materials are mass-produced for a number of uses-underwater transducers, medical products, and ultrasonic cleaners, as an example.

The more that people understand this phenomenon, and its potential widespread uses, the more development we'll see. Spread the word!