Ngk Insulators, Inc.

Sumitomo Electric Industries, Limited

Ngk Insultaors, Ltd.

Fumitake Takahashi

Kazuyoshi Shibata

Koji Ikeda

Haruhiko Itoh

Tomoki Ito

Hiroshi Ashida

A pair of opposing thin plate sections, movable sections, and fixed sections for supporting the thin plate sections and the movable sections are provided on a ceramic substrate. After a wiring pattern and a gap or an insulating layer of cermet layer for filling the gap are formed on a ceramic substrate, these are sintered. After that, piezoelectric/electrostrictive layers and cermet electrode layers including a piezoelectric/electrostrictive material and a conductive material are alternately stacked in a comb like structure on the ceramic substrate. Accordingly, a piezoelectric/electrostrictive device having the piezoelectric/electrostrictive element in multilayer structure is obtained.

Piezoelectric/electrostrictive device and method of manufacturing same

A ceramic stack including a plurality of stacked ceramic plates having different lengths, the ceramic stack including an additional member having a curved surface, the additional member being disposed at a border between a first principal surface of the ceramic plate which is long and a side surface of the ceramic plate which is short. The short ceramic plate is stacked on the first principal surface, and the additional member has one or more inflection points on a surface thereof as viewed in a cross-sectional direction.

Ceramic stack and a piezoelectric/electrostrictive device including same

A method of producing a piezoelectric/electrostrictive device having a base including a pair of movable parts opposing each other, a fixing part that connects the movable parts with each other at one end thereof, and mounting parts that extend for a predetermined length while holding slit-shaped gaps of a predetermined width along inside surfaces of said movable parts by being turned around at the other end of said movable parts, said piezoelectric/electrostrictive device having a piezoelectric/electrostrictive element disposed on at least one outside surface of said movable parts of said base, wherein a base block obtained by laminating and calcining a large number of ceramic green sheets is adopted as a material for forming said base, and the base including said movable parts, said fixing part, and said mounting parts is formed by cutting said base block at a predetermined site along a lamination direction of said ceramic green sheets.

Method of producing a piezoelectric/electrostrictive device

A mathod of manufacturing a piezoelectric/electrostrictive divice includes an additional member that is provided at a border between an inner wall surface of a thin plate section formed by a long ceramic plate and a side surface (cutout surface) formed by a short ceramic plate. Assuming that a surface of the additional member forms a curve C as viewed in vertical cross section, the curve C is a free curve having one inflection point. The additional member has a portion Cwhich extends along the inner wall surface of the thin plate section with its surface extending substantially in parallel toward the border, and a curved portion Cwhich is disposed at a part corresponding to the border.

Method of manufacturing a piezoelectric/electrostrictive device

A method of producing a ceramic stack is provided, including the steps of providing at least a first ceramic green sheet to be formed into a long ceramic plate and having a principal surface, providing at least a second ceramic green sheet to be formed into a short ceramic plate and having a length that is less than a length of the principal surface of the first ceramic green sheet, and laminating the second ceramic green sheet to the principal surface of the first ceramic green sheet to form a ceramic green sheet laminate having a lamination border defined between at least a side surface of the second ceramic green sheet and the principal surface of the first ceramic green sheet. The method also includes the steps of forming a member having a curved surface at the lamination border by applying a paste to the lamination border such that the curved surface includes at least one inflection point when viewed in cross-section, and sintering the laminate into an integral unit to form the ceramic stack.

Method of manufacturing a ceramic stack

A piezoelectric/electrostrictive device includes a pair of thin plates confronting each other, a fixing member supporting the thin plates thereon, and movable portions disposed on end portions of the pair of thin plates. Protrusions are formed on principal surfaces of first ceramic green sheets according to at least a single thick film forming process. The protrusions will subsequently serve as the movable portions, and the first ceramic green sheets will subsequently serve as the thin plates. The first ceramic green sheets and a second ceramic green sheet which will subsequently serve as the fixing member are stacked into a ceramic green laminated body. The ceramic green laminated body is baked into an integral ceramic laminated body. Piezoelectric/electrostrictive elements are formed on the ceramic laminated body. After the piezoelectric/electrostrictive elements are baked, unnecessary portions are removed from the piezoelectric/electrostrictive elements to fabricate the piezoelectric/electrostrictive device.

A piezoelectric/electrostrictive device has a base including a pair of right and left movable parts and a fixing part on one end thereof, and a piezoelectric/electrostrictive element on the side surfaces of movable parts of base . The adhesive force of bonding a component H sandwiched and held on the other end of movable parts is enhanced. Base constituting the piezoelectric/electrostrictive device has a pair of long mounting parts for mounting component H on the other end of movable parts . Mounting parts extend for a predetermined length while holding slit-shaped gaps of a predetermined width along the inside surfaces of movable parts by being turned around at the other end of movable parts . This increases the bonding area of mounting parts to component H, thereby greatly improving the adhesive force of bonding the component.

Piezoelectric/electrostrictive device and method of producing the same

An apparatus for coating vertically extending wires with paint in which the temperature of a paint bath is accurately maintained and temperature variations within the bath are largely eliminated so as to provide constant coating characteristics. Vertically extending coating chambers are provided having relatively small cross-sectional areas so that heat generated by an adjacent heating element is spread evenly throughout the paint bath. A coating die is disposed at the top of each chamber. A discharge element is provided near the coating die and a paint receiving pool is stationed to receive the paint discharged through the outlet. The paint pool is in fluid communication with the bottom portion of each of the chambers.

Growing community of inventors

Nagoya, Japan

Fumitake Takahashi