Fabrication of a particle excitation three-way valve using a single piezoelectric vibrator

Abstract

The hydraulic control system for multiple-degree-of-freedom mechanisms is large because such system require many control components. The purpose of this research is to develop a small hydraulic flow control valve. In our previous research, we applied a small flow control valve using a particle excitation by a piezoelectric vibrator to a hydraulic system. In addition, we developed a three-way valve using two vibrators, and applied this three-way valve to a fluidic actuator. In this paper, we have developed a three-way valve using a single vibrator. In this proposed three-way valve, inlet and outlet ports can be switched by applying different driving frequencies to a single vibrator because two ports have different resonant frequencies. We have evaluated the vibration and flow rate of the fabricated three-way valve.