The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 25, 2001
Filed:
Sep. 09, 1998
Peter Jaenker, Garching, DE;
EADS Deutschland GmbH, Munich, DE;
Abstract
An actuator device (,) includes a piezoelectric or electro-strictive solid state actuator element (,) that is elongated upon application of an electric voltage thereto, and a transmission mechanism (,) that amplifies the stroke displacement of the actuator element. The transmission mechanism (,) includes a plurality of rigid frame members (,), including unitary frame members (,) and divided frame members (,), and elastically flexible joints (,) that respectively interconnect the frame members. Each one of the divided frame members (,) is made up of a plurality of separate parallel link rods (,). Each flexible joint (,) is made up of a plurality of individual parallel hinge members (,) that respectively connect an end of each one of the link rods (,) to the adjacent unitary frame member (,). By this division of the flexible joints and of the divided frame members into parallel sub-components, the cross-sectional thickness of each individual hinge member is reduced, and thereby the bending stiffness and the outer fiber strain of the material of the hinge members is significantly reduced while providing the same total tensile strength and tensile stiffness. The link rods of each divided frame member effectively form a parallelogram linkage for moving and guiding the output members (,) in a parallel manner.