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Leica Geosystems AG benefits from PILine® ultrasonic motors that are used in their newest generation of surveying instruments for geodesy. The requirements that were set for the drive of the total station "Leica TS30" were, amongst others, higher speeds, shorter positioning times and a very high positioning accuracy when moving the measuring optics.

These requirements were exceeded by far through the employment of PILine® ultrasonic motors. PI’s U-164 piezomotor was chosen for the vertical as well as the horizontal movement of the measuring optics of the total station. The rotations of the measuring optics are produced by two such motors which are preloaded against a friction ring. The friction ring is pivot mounted. The preloadingof the drive holds it at rest. When in operation, the ceramic piezomotors oscillate with ultrasonic frequencies. The oscillation generates a feed motion of the friction ring. With this principle of operation as yet unrivalled speeds of at least 180°/s and high accelerations of up to 360°/s2 can be achieved. The drive offers an improved starting and stopping behavior and at the same time an angulameasuring accuracy of 0.5" and low power consumption. The drives are maintenance free and self locking, i.e. they generate high holding forces even when no electrical power is applied, they run almost noiselessly and operate at ambient temperatures between –20 °C and + 50 °C. As the described application illustrates, ultrasonic piezomotors continuously expand into new fields of application. One can only guess as to which of the applications they will contribute next to advancing the technical development even further.




The above project describes the maturaty state of Ultrasonic Piezomotors for OEM applications. Please contact Dick Moerman for your specific OEM needs.