A Study on the Motion of Micro-Parts on a Saw-Tooth Surface by the PTV Method

This study investigates the motion of micro parts on several vibratory plates with saw-tooth surface profile driven by a piezoelectric actuator. The surfaces are made of carbide, brass, and zirconia with the same profiles as a saw-tooth. The velocity and position of micro-parts are time-dependently measured by the particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) method where the Canny edge detection technique is used. In the present experiment, 2012-type micro-parts whose dimensions are 2.0 × 1.2 × 0.6 mm3 in length, width, and depth, respectively, are employed. The mass of each micro-part is 7.5 mg. Using a high-speed camera, the tracked longitudinal displacement resolution is found to be about 0.01 mm, which is small in comparison with the length of each micro-part. The obtained results show that unidirectional motion can be attained by the present feeder system. For the same oscillating frequencies and amplitudes applied to the sawtooth surfaces, the motion behavior of micro-parts varies for different experiments and surfaces. This implies that the motion of micro-parts is affected by uncertain causes. However, the probability distribution of the micro-parts’ velocity can be approached by a Gaussian distribution.