Piezoactuators for ´real world´ applications. Can they deliver sufficient displacement?

Piezoelectric actuators can develop large forces very quickly and with high efficiency. The need for high-voltage power supplies has been overcome with stack or multilayer actuators, but the available displacements are still minute. This has limited their use to specialist optical and micro-positioning systems. In order to obtain useful strokes for more general engineering applications, their output displacement must (and can) be amplified. One way of achieving this is by direct mechanical amplification-typically using flexure hinged structures or hydraulic amplifiers. This method is described in the paper.