"Nano-Delta" anyone?

Hi all,

... some +10 ago I've developed and built some pretty advanced micro- and nano-positioners (and applications around them) for university projects, comercial and for "my own" interests too

Recently I searched for DIY-REM's and -AFM's and found some groups or hobby-projects - e.g.: [www.instructables.com]

After a visit of a friend, searching an optical positioner, we discussed some variants and I've scooped through my basement for micro- and nano-drives ... and found some of this "PiezoLegs" with controllers:




While using them in the old projects for linear drives only -- why not trying to make a "nano-delta" with them?

They are pretty precise, stiff and have some nice features:
- 8N blocking force
- 23mm travel range
- 10mm/s max. speed
- 150nm step width when slow stepping (around 300nm when fast)
- sub-nanometer positioning accuracy in "bending mode"

Have not really much free time actually, but thinking about assembling a Delta with three of them, moving/morphing solid-stage hinges, positioning a head with an AFM-tip (have some thousand "nail-heads" from an old project too)


Have other piezo-motors or micro-positioners too, but they are a bit less accurate in positioning while "stepping" - here for example some "piezo-motors" which are much cheaper, but not the accuracy like the "PiezoLegs":




So if someone is interested in "nano", we could collect some other ideas too ... and maybe start "tinkering"?

---

Viktor
--------
Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

It sounds like a very interesting project - and a change from every second post wanting to build a BIG Cartesian or a HUGE Delta.
An assortment of questions if I may.

1. Is there a source of inexpensive piezo motors? I know that they are potentially dirt cheap but the closest I have ever come is some samples that I had from [pcbmotor.com] . I understand that piezo motors are used to focus quite inexpensive camera lenses but have never come across anything available in the DIY or maker arena to play with.
2. Could a piezo motor be made with available elements?
3. How Nano? 10mm cube? 50mm cube or maybe sub-millimeter
4. What do you propose for the printing technology? Standard FFF would need nozzles of less than 100µm and the back pressure would make 1.75mm filament very problematic

At the moment I am up to my neck in muck and bullets with a project that has become rediculously complicated but I think I see the glimmer of future success so will be looking for something else interesting to do.

Mike

... you mustn't be focussing on piezos alone (but there are some dirty cheap methodes -- look into the instructables-link).

When busy with this micro-nano-things, I've built some "hydraulic" types too:
- get a medium sized common 50ml syringe, filled with water, connected with a much thiner 5ml syringe (there are even thinner 2ml types available).
- move the handle of the small syringe from min to max (like 50mm)
- and measure the moving range of the big one! - should be something like 30:1 to 100:1, depending on the handles/pistons diamter difference (I've built something like 500:1)

... so moving the small handle let's say 1mm will position the big handle for 10 microns with a 100:1 ratio

Now use the "big handles" as positioners for your micro-assembly stages.


But my most interesting/intriguing idea is around a "morphing body", 3D-printed from elastic resin, resembling the struture of a squid - a thicker "arm", supporting "fingers", all with thin capilaries and cavities - which, when pumped or released, will deform the elastic structure to bend, strech and move te "fingers" ... could be even with force-sensing cavities when measuring the pressure in selcted capilaries ...


And for the size envelope or "footprint":
- something like single to some ten centimetres for the body/support
- a "working area" of some centimetres to millimetres
- positionig accuracies in the range of some microns to nanometers
- combinations of several similar or totally different "positioners" for complex operations
- multi-tools like: tweezer, dispenser, needle, light-fiber (UV-curing), laser, ...

---

Viktor
--------
Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]