A travelling wave ultrasonic clutch by the coupling of longitudinal and bending vibration modes

A travelling wave ultrasonic by the clutch coupling longitudinal and bending vibration modes is proposed to improve the output performance of the current ultrasonic clutch. The proposed ultrasonic clutch mechanism is a crucial component and it mainly includes a driving friction plate, a slave friction plate, driving and slave Langevin transducers, driving and driven shafts. The proposed ultrasonic clutch has the connection and disconnection function. In addition, a driving travelling wave is generated by compositing the longitudinal and bending vibration modes of transducer and friction plate for realizing the regulation of output performance. The matching frequencies of two vibration modes are obtained by modal simulation analysis using finite element method. A prototype of ultrasonic clutch is manufactured and the vibration characteristics are tested. The results indicate that the travelling wave ultrasonic clutch coupling by longitudinal and bending vibration modes is feasible.