Walter Littmann

The effect of friction reduction in presence of ultrasonic vibrations and its relevance to travelling wave ultrasonic motors.

In many ultrasonic applications frictional effects play an important role (e.g. ultrasonic machining, ultrasonic motors). For optimising the applications in terms of quality, efficiency and lifetime it is important to understand the frictional coupling of the vibrating and the non-vibrating part. This contribution is devoted to give an explanation for the reduction of friction forces which is often observed when ultrasonic vibrations are superimposed to macroscopic motions. Usually adopted coefficients of friction are used for modelling such conditions suggesting special frictional mechanisms for high frequency oscillations, whereas the present paper shows that Coulombs friction law provides a very good description of the observed phenomena if the kinematics of the system is taken into account. Two systems are investigated. In the first system the ultrasonic and macroscopic movements are parallel and in the second they are perpendicular to each other but also within the plane of contact. Both systems were investigated analytically and experimentally using a specially designed test rig. The measurements confirmed the analytically derived equations and therefore the validity of Coulombs friction law even for ultrasonic conditions.

Reduction of friction using piezoelectrically excited ultrasonic vibrations

Piezoelectric materials are an important class of smart materials for the generation of mechanical ultrasonic vibrations. In industrial applications (for example ultrasonic cutting) the frictional contact of the vibrating tool with the workpiece is of special importance. A common observation at the contact zone is that frictional forces can be significantly reduced by superposition of ultrasonic vibrations. In this report we present a theoretical explanation for the reduction of friction. A basic system, consisting of a longitudinal ultrasonic vibrator sliding on a plane, is investigated. It is shown that a modification of Coulombs friction law can be applied to this kind of vibrating friction contact. The macroscopically observed friction-force with ultrasonic vibration depends on the sliding velocity and the velocity of vibration: For sliding velocities higher than the vibration-amplitude the frictional force is not changed by vibration. But for small sliding velocities the friction-coefficient is significantly reduced and almost approaches zero for very slow sliding-velocity. The theoretical results were confirmed systematically by experimental investigations done on a specially designed test-rig. Energy considerations are used to calculate the ultrasonic energy which is required to achieve a prescribed reduction of the frictional forces. The model is also used for sensing the vibration-amplitude as well as the sliding-velocity without an additional sensor.

Piezoelectric transformers - state of the art and development trends

Piezoelectric transformers are well known since the publication of some patent applications at the end of the 1950s. But until today their only business use lies in the field of backlighting systems for LCDs. Due to key features as light-weight, flatness, high step-up at low volume and high efficiency piezoelectric transformers should be usable in a much broader range of applications. This contribution returns to mind their operating principle, shows how to model and to develop such devices as well as give some aspects for development trends that will lead to further applications.