3-DOF automatic printed board positioning system using impact drive mechanism

There is a tendency nowadays to produce increasingly miniaturized electronic equipment which incorporate parts that have to be precisely positioned, like lenses, heads and CCD's in scanners, printers, copiers, VCR's, optical fiber modules, etc. In contrast to the production process of precision parts, which is currently being carried out automatically, the assemblage process is still being performed by specially skilled technicians. The assemblage process comprises normally the following steps: firstly, the parts are roughly positioned and partially fixed, secondly, the parts are manually nudged towards the target position and finally glued, screwed or welded. This paper presents a system that uses six piezo Impact Drive Mechanisms for accurate micro positioning within three degrees of freedom (lateral and longitudinal translation and rotation). The system is designed to positioning a printed circuit board with an accuracy better than 3 .mu.m (for translations), 5 mrad (for rotation).