Development of High-Power Micropump Using Inertia Effect of Fluid for Small-Sized Fluid Actuators

The authors have been developing a high output micropump for the small but powerful fluid actuator which has a source of fluid power individually. In this paper, a novel piezoelectric micropump is proposed, which utilizes the pipeline element saving kinetic energy and generated inertia effect of fast outflow, instead of the outlet check valve. Through experiments on load characteristics using water as a working fluid, the newly devised micropump attained a higher fluid output power than 70mW and the volumetric efficiency of the pump exceeds 100% with the pump chamber diameter of 3mm. Furthermore, by measuring the internal pressure of the pump, the above-mentioned principle is confirmed based on the relation of the driving voltage of a multilayered piezoelectric element and the internal pressure of the pump. Moreover, it is proved that bending operation of a finger-type flexible actuator is possible using the developed micropump. Next, a micro-bender which uses the fluid power is developed, as another example of application of the micropump.