Design and fabrication of a two-axis micro-motion machine for precision alignment

This paper presents the design, analysis, fabrication, and experimental testing of a two-axis micro-motion machine dedicated to precision alignment applications. The designed machine features a long alignment distance over ±5 mm in each axis and a well decoupling motion in the two axes. The design is devised using metal flexure mechanisms based on multistage leaf spring, which allows a precise movement without friction. Two voice coil motors are used to produce the two-axis motion. The flexure mechanism design is validated by finiteelement analysis (FEA) simulation study. Results confirm that the mechanism can provide over ±7 mm motion without failure in each axis. Moreover, a prototype machine is fabricated via EDM process. A series of experimental studies are performed on the prototype by using LabVIEW software. Experimented results demonstrate the satisfactory performance of the developed machine.