PI Ceramic’s new development cuts sample production time in half
PI Ceramic has unveiled its new production line for multilayer tape technology to accelerate sample production and increases flexibility in manufacturing of Piezoceramics. The flexible design makes small-scale series economically possible.
Piezoceramic components benefit greatly from tape technology. PICMA multilayer bending actuators and PICMA multilayer linear actuators particularly benefit piezoeramic production.
PI Ceramic has invested a further €1 million into the development and installation of an additional production line for multilayer components composed of single tapes laminated together. Customers will benefit from flexible system designs that creates economically viable production at small-scale levels and prototyping.
The new line halves the time needed for manufacturing samples for system development, now taking a few weeks. The production line has end-to-end traceability of intermediate products, an important property for medical technologies.
Dr Patrick Pertsch, managing director of PI Ceramic, said: “With the combination of the existing line for large-scale series production and the new one for small-scale series, PI Ceramic has the world’s most modern and flexible portfolio of machines for the production of piezoceramic multilayer actuators."
Three manufacturing stations involved in the process work together without hitches. The sheet cutter cuts the moulded ceramic tapes to precise required sizes. The screen printer then prints onto the individual tapes an inner electrode paste using the screen printing method to dry them along a drying line. The third and final process, the stacker, separates the ceramic tape from its carrier tape and then stacks it and presses it. A standardised cartridge system ensures efficient handling of the tapes between stations.
Pertsch stated this technology forms the basis for reinforcing and expanding the position of the PI Group for piezo-based nanopositioning technology.
