Improving the performances of ultrasonic motors using intermittent contact scheme

Most ultrasonic motors operate in intermittent contact scheme. Their stators drive the rotors (or sliders) when the stators contact the rotors, and the rotors (or sliders) move under an inertia force when the stators and the rotors are separated. The duty cycle of the contact and the “flight” manages motors’ output performance. To obtain a large output force or output velocity, this paper proposes a concept using the alternative work of a multi-stator or the multi-driving end of a single stator. The method can avoid larger noise, poor efficiency, and lifetime of motors. A novel linear ultrasonic motor using the alternative work of the multi-driving end of a single stator was fabricated and investigated experimentally. The traveling speed without load of the slider is 88 mm/s, and the maximum load is 0.32 N.