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.

Newly available from Micromech is Delta Tau's Turbo PMAC Clipper, a feature-filled, highly cost-effective multi-axis controller. Based on the Turbo PMAC2 CPU, the Turbo PMAC Clipper provides a single board with four axis servomotor or stepper motor control with 32-digital I/O points and choice of Ethernet or RS232 communication ports. It is easily expandable to eight axes with a small daughter board.

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.

Edwards has launched a new range of dry pumps which delivers high vacuum performance and enables full process integration. The compact GXS pump features unique screw technology and enables users to optimise their processes resulting in a low cost of ownership and a reduced footprint.