Micro-Valves
Piezoelectric bulk elements are used in primarily three different configurations for micro valves. These configurations are benders, discs and piezoelectric stacks. For pressure control, flow metering and proportional valves, piezoelectric micro valves are often a better alternative to conventional solenoid valves.
Piezoelectric bulk element micro valves can be found in flow control, fuel injection, industrial adhesive metering, various medical applications including pneumatically powered surgical tools and mobile ventilators, and semiconductor processing. Piezoelectric micro valves have advantages over conventional solenoids as they are precise, reliable, and extremely fast. Since they are lightweight and need minimal energy to maintain position, they save energy in most applications.
CTS piezoelectric materials provide excellent performance results for micro valve applications because they have a wide bandwidth and can quickly respond by applying high force at low power levels. CTS piezoelectric materials can be formed to customer specifications and are available in a wide range of geometries with dimensions up to 150 mm or thicknesses less than 100 microns.
CTS recommends piezoelectric material types K1000, K1300 and K1450 for micro valve applications.