High Precision Positioning with Ferrofluids as an Active Medium

Ferrofluids are magnetically controllable fluids which can be used as an active medium in high precision positioning systems. The capability of ferrofluids for being fixed with an applied external magnetic field and their magnetorheological behavior are main properties for technical applications. Beside that, amplifying the magnetic force acting on the surface of a paramagnetic actor which levitates in a ferrofluid can be used for the high precision positioning of objects. In this paper different types of magnetofluidic positioning systems are described and the influences on the velocity of positioning and on the accuracy of positioning are discussed.