A Resonantly-Driven Piezoelectric Micropump for Microfactory

For realization of micro fluid power sources applicable to microfactory or micromachines using fluid power with high power density, a resonantly-driven piezoelectric micropump with newly devised check valve unit is developed and a practical application to micro press is attempted. First, a micro sheet valve having a floating valve-body inside valve chest to increase valve-opening and to decrease pressure loss across the check valve unit is proposed and fabricated by micromachining. Through experiments on static characteristics between flow rates across the micro sheet valve and statically applied pressures, the validity of the proposed valve is verified. Second, pumping characteristics of the fabricated micropump that employs two micro sheet valves for inlet/outlet are experimentally investigated. Maximum flow rate of 183 mm/s and higher maximum pressure than 0.5 MPa are obtained with the micropump having the size of 9 mm diameter and 10 mm length. Finally, a micro press equipped with the developed micropump is designed and fabricated with the effective size of 20×20×28 mm. Blanking of a hole with 0.3 mm diameter to aluminium plate with 0.01 mm thickness is realized.