Affiliations: [a] Department of Advanced Science and Technology, Toyota
Technological Institute, Nagoya, Japan | Université Laval, Canada | Tohoku University, Japan
Correspondence:
[*]
Corresponding author: Katsushi Furutani, Department of Advanced
Science and Technology, Toyota Technological Institute, 12-1, Hisakata 2-chome,
Tempaku-ku, Nagoya 468-8511, Japan. Tel.: +81 52 809 1796; E-mail:
furutani@toyota-ti.ac.jp
Abstract: This paper deals with tweezers for a mass detection during
micromanipulation. It measures 52 mm × 30 mm × 10 mm and weighs 37
g. Each finger consists of a bimorph piezoelectric actuator with a stainless
steel tip. One of the tweezers working as a vibrator was oscillated at its
resonance frequency, and another working as a grasper opened and closed the gap
between the tips of the bimorph piezoelectric actuators. The simulation model
that represents the contact of two beams and a lumped mass as springs was
described. The resonance frequency was increased when the tweezers grasped an
object. The relationship between the mass of the object and frequency was
obtained experimentally. Because the charge generated by the piezoelectric
effect also affected the resonance frequency, the frequency change in the
experiments was smaller than that in the simulation.
Keywords: Piezoelectric actuator, mass evaluation, vibration, resonance frequency, cantilever
