Piezo technology specialist PI Ceramic has released a new white paper on the development and test of highly reliable multilayer piezo actuators. The paper describes the development and lifetime tests of ceramic encapsulated actuators under different operating conditions (DC and AC). The actuators are compared to polymer coated piezo ceramic actuators in long term tests. Equations and graphs for lifetime calculation under different operational and environmental conditions and special internal electrode designs for stress reduction are discussed.

Dover's recently introduced Mini-MAG high precision linear servomotor stages are available from motion specialist Heason Technology. The compact 80mm wide all-stainless steel stages use Dover's well proven and unique MAG moving magnet concept that eliminates moving motor cables and are factory stocked for fast delivery in four standard travel ranges from 25mm to 150mm.

Edwards has received six major orders for industrial coating systems in Taiwan and China in the last six months worth a total of over £3.5 million. Orders have included the supply of a variety of primary pumps and secondary pumps for different applications, including coating architectural flat glass and display coating of materials onto devices such as mobile phones, PDAs and hand-held devices.

Aerotech has launched a new digital servo amplifier with a linear power stage for ultra-high resolution brushed or brushless linear and rotary motion control systems. The new compact ML series amplifier is intended for lower power use but maintains the very high performance characteristics required for nanometre and microradian level precision positioning applications that are acutely susceptible to electrical noise, and where PWM servo amplifiers become unusable. The DSP based ML range is designed for minimal radiated noise to allow the servo system to provide exceptional levels of speed control and in-position stability for ultra-smooth motion profiles, and to ensure negligible interference levels for sensitive processing and measuring equipment.