| Viking AT, LLC Patent applications |
| Patent application number | Title | Published |
|---|
| 20120038245 | Smart Material Actuator Adapted for Resonant Operation - A smart material actuator having a fixed supporting member, mechanical web, actuating arm, and piezoelectric or smart material stack is disclosed, together with a sensor adapted to indicate the degree of motion of the actuating arms and controller adapted to allow safe operation of the actuator in resonant conditions. Methods of maintaining resonant operation, avoiding resonant operation, and adjusting resonant frequencies are also disclosed. | 02-16-2012 |
| 20120001518 | Mountable Arm Smart Material Actuator and Energy Harvesting Apparatus - A smart material actuator comprising a mechanical amplifier with a fixed supporting member, at least one mountable actuating arm, and mechanical web having at least one compliant member attached to the mountable arm and a movable supporting member. A piezoelectric stack is affixed between a first mounting surface on the fixed supporting member and a second mounting surface on the movable supporting member. With the fixed supporting member being substantially rigid, and the piezoelectric stack being affixed between the first mounting surface and the second mounting surface, which are substantially parallel, applying an appropriate electric potential to the piezoelectric stack will cause it to expand substantially without angular movement. The expansion urges the second mounting surface away from the first, thereby causing the compliant members of the mechanical web to flex, thereby moving the mountable actuating arm. The configuration of the web and the length of the mountable arm cause the actuating end of the arm to move across a distance greater than the expansion of the piezoelectric stack. In this way, the expansion of the stack is effectively amplified by the mechanical amplifier. Actuators of this type may be used both to create mechanical motion from electrical energy and to harvest electrical energy from mechanical motion, or sense the degree of such motion. A number of arm designs and means of attachment to external components are disclosed, in addition to methods of generating electricity from mechanical motion and generating vibration using such actuators and methods of tuning the resonant frequency and increasing the efficiency of energy harvesting through resonant operation. | 01-05-2012 |
| 20110309721 | Small Scale Smart Material Actuator and Energy Harvesting Apparatus - A micro-scale, smart material actuator having an overall length smaller than 10 mm comprising a multilayer piezoelectric stack housed in a mechanical amplifier made up of a fixed supporting member, a movable supporting member connected to compliant links attached to one or more actuating arms such that, when a suitable electric current is applied to the piezoelectric stack, the resulting expansion is translated through the movable supporting member, thereby causing movement in the actuating arms A method of generating electricity from motion using such an actuator is also disclosed in which the actuating arms are connected to a source of mechanical motion and the piezoelectric stack is connected to an electrical load, whereby the mechanical motion causes the piezoelectric stack to generate electrical charge that is then discharged into the load. | 12-22-2011 |
