Thermal vacuum behaviour of a stepping piezo actuator

The presented work illustrates the design of a new high force Stepping Piezoelectric Actuator (SPA) and describes its Thermal Vacuum testing as performed by ESTL, in order to investigate SPA compatibility with vacuum environment within a wide temperatures range; from +60°C down to -180°C. A dedicated test bench was designed, in order to check motor force and speed for all performed tests. Instrumentation, testing and observations about tribological behaviour of friction interface have been realized by ESTL, showing interesting perspectives.