A supporting device for a vibration driven actuator

Abstract: A planar auxiliary supporting member for supporting an elastic member for generating a vibration is arranged. The elastic member contacts a rail-shaped stationary member, and moves along the stationary member. The rigidity of the supporting member is set to be low, so that the elastic member as a stator stably moves along the stationary member.

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vibration driven apparatus wherein an elastic member in which a travelling wave is generated is urged against a rail-like stationary member, and is moved along the rail-like stationary member. Description of the Related Art A conventional vibration driven apparatus of this type is proposed in USP 5,192,890. Figs. 11 and 12 show the motor. An elastic member 1 consists of a metal material, and has a projection 1a formed on the sliding surface side. When an AC voltage is applied to a piezoelectric element 2 joined to the upper surface of the elastic member 1, a travelling vibration wave is generated in the elastic member 1. Since the generation principle of the travelling vibration wave and the structure of the piezoelectric element 2 are known to those who are skilled in the art, a detailed description thereof will be omitted. Briefly speaking, the travelling vibration wave is formed when AC voltages having a temporal phase difference of 90° are applied to two groups of driving piezoelectric elements which are positionally shifted by 90° of the piezoelectric element. A rail-shaped stationary member 8 frictionally contacts the elastic member 1, and is fixed to a bottom plate 10 of a motor case. More specifically, the stationary member 8 contacts the elastic member 1 via a vibration insulating member 6 (e.g., felt) by a compression spring 3. A planar auxiliary supporting member 7 has an H shape when it is viewed from the top, and is joined to the bottom portion of a slit of the elastic member 1. The supporting member 7 firmly supports the central portion of the elastic member 1 to a table 4. Thus, the elastic member 1 can make a smooth linear motion together with the table 4 without cluttering. This motor is used for driving a printing head in, e.g., a bubble-jet printer. The printing head is mounted on a carriage (not shown) attached to the table 4, and the motor linearly and reciprocally moves the printing head. However, it is very difficult to strictly bring the elastic member 1 into surface-contact with the rail-shaped stationary member 8 due to dimensional errors of parts, and the like. In practice, as shown in Figs. 13 and 14, the elastic member 1 may be in oblique contact with the stationary member 8. For this reason, the contact state between the elastic member 1 and the rail-shaped stationary member 8 becomes line contact and unstable. When the contact state changes in the moving direction of the elastic member 1, it is difficult to stably move the elastic member 1. Such problems of the vibration wave motor impair print precision of the printer. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION As a further state of the art the document EP-A-0 475 752 discloses a vibration driven apparatus of this kind which has a movable member, an elastic supporting member, a stationary member having a contact surface and a vibration generating member. The vibration generating member has also a contact surface which is in press contact with the contact surface of the stationary member by the compression force of a pressing member. Finally, each of the documents EP-A-0 450 919 and EP-A-0 435 496 discloses a vibration driven motor the construction of which is the same as the construction of the vibration driven apparatus of the document EP-A-0 475 752. In view of this state of the art, it is an object of the present invention to provide a vibration driven apparatus which can realize high-precision printing. This object is achieved by a vibration driven apparatus having the technical features according to the enclosed new claim 1. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a side view showing the first embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a side view showing the use state of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a side view showing the second embodiment; Fig. 4 is a side view showing the third embodiment; Fig. 5 is a plan view showing principal part of Fig. 4; Fig. 6 is a perspective view showing the fourth embodiment; Fig. 7 is a side view of Fig. 6; Fig. 8 is a side view showing the fifth embodiment; Fig. 9 is a plan view of Fig. 8; Fig. 10 is a perspective view showing an example of a printer apparatus useful for use of a vibration wave motor according to the present invention; Fig. 11 is a side view of a conventional vibration wave motor; Fig. 12 is a plan view of Fig. 11; Fig. 13 is a side view showing the use state of the vibration wave motor shown in Fig. 11; and Fig. 14 is a side view showing the use state of the vibration wave motor shown in Fig. 11. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail hereinafter with reference to illustrated embodiments. The same reference numerals denote the same parts as in the prior art, and a detailed description thereof will be omitted. Since a method of generating a travelling wave in a track type vibration member is known to those who are skilled in the art, a description thereof will be omitted as well. Fig. 1 shows the first embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, an elastic member 1 has an elliptic shape, as shown in Fig. 12, and has a plurality of projections defined by a plurality of grooves on a portion contacting a rail-shaped stationary member 8. The total width, from an outer circumferential portion 1AA to an inner circumferential portion 1AB, of a single straight portion of the elastic member 1 contacts the rail-shaped stationary member 8. Furthermore, in order to uniform the compression distribution between the stationary member 8 and the elastic member 1, a compression plate 5 is arranged between a felt 6' and a compression spring 3', and a projection 3 a' of the compression spring 3' is formed at a position where the compression force acts on the central portion, in the widthwise direction, of the compression plate 5. Note that the projection 3 a' is formed by bending a portion of the spring 3'. Note that Fig. 1 illustrates a case wherein the respective parts have ideal dimensional precision. For example, when the dimensional precision is low, and the position of the elastic member 1 is shifted upward in Fig. 1, a planar auxiliary supporting member 7 flexes, as shown in Fig. 2. At this time, when the counterforce of the supporting member 7 is set to be equal to or lower than half a compression force of the compression spring 3', almost the entire contact surface of the elastic member 1 contacts the contact surface of the rail-shaped stationary member 8, and the posture of the elastic member 1 follows the frictional surface of the rail-shaped stationary member 8. Therefore, the counterforce of the planar auxiliary support member 7 influences the compression distribution unless its rigidity is set to be considerably lower than that of the compression spring 3'. Fig. 3 shows the second embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, two portions, i.e., an outer peripheral portion 1b and an inner peripheral portion 1c of a single straight portion of the elastic member 1 contact the rail-shaped stationary member, so that the posture of the elastic member 1 follows the frictional surface of the rail-shaped stationary member 8. The two contact portions need only be separated by a certain distance, and need not always be located at the outermost and innermost peripheral positions. Figs. 4 and 5 show the third embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, a planar auxiliary supporting member 70 is joined to only one straight portion of the elastic member 1. Thus, the planar auxiliary supporting member 70 has considerably lower rigidity than that in the first and second embodiments, and does not adversely influence the compression distribution. In this embodiment, a distal end portion 70a (see Fig. 5) of the planar auxiliary supporting member 70 is joined to the bottom portion of the slit of the elastic member 1. The position of the joint portion is desirably set at or near the middle point between adjacent antinode and node of two standing waves (wavelength λ) which are shifted from each other by λ/4, as described in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 4-21374. Fig. 6 shows the fourth embodiment of the present invention, and illustrates only a planar auxiliary supporting member 71. In this embodiment, projected portions 71a are formed by bending the distal ends of the supporting member, and are joined to the inner side surface of the elastic member 1, as shown in Fig. 7. Figs. 8 and 9 show the fifth embodiment of the present invention. A pair of projected portions 1d are formed on the side surface of an inner circumferential portion of the elastic member 1, and distal end portions 72a of a planar auxiliary supporting member 72 are joined to the projected portions 1d. Note that the projected portions 1d formed on the elastic member 1 are arranged near the neutral surface of the elastic member 1 so as not to disturb the vibration of the elastic member 1. The present invention presents the planar auxiliary supporting member 7 having an H shape, and the members 70 (Fig. 4), 71 (Fig. 6), and 72 (Fig. 8) having corresponding shapes. However, the present invention is not limited to these shapes. For example, the supporting member may have an X shape, as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 4-21374. In this embodiment, the projection 1a, or the projection 1b and 1c of the elastic member 1 directly contact the rail-shaped stationary member 8. However, a resin may be adhered, as a sliding member, to the projection 1a of the elastic member 1, or the projections 1b and 1c in Fig. 3 may be formed using a resin. In each of the above embodiments, the elastic member 1 moves along the rail-shaped stationary member 8. Conversely, the elastic member 1 may be fixed, and a movable member may move along the elastic member. Fig. 10 is a perspective view of a bubble-jet printer apparatus using the above-mentioned vibration wave motor. A printing head 29 is placed on a carriage 40 to eject an ink, and the ejected ink is printed on a paper sheet 20 fed by a paper feed vibration wave motor 1' (disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 3-31137). A slit plate 24 for forming an encoder is arranged to control the feed speed of the carriage, and a rotary encoder 21 for detecting the paper feed amount is rotated by a roller 22 urged against the upper surface of the paper sheet 20. As described above, according to the present invention, since the auxiliary supporting member has low rigidity, the posture of the elastic member follows the frictional surface of the rail-shaped stationary member. Thus, the contact state between the elastic member and the stationary member can be stabilized, so that the elastic member can stably move. If the slit bottom surface of the elastic member has good flatness, the planar auxiliary supporting member is preferably joined to this surface for the purpose of easy manufacture. When the slit bottom surface does not have good flatness, the supporting member may be joined to the side surface of the elastic member, or may be joined to a projected portion formed on the side surface of the elastic member so as to facilitate a joint process. When the above-mentioned vibration wave motor is utilized as a drive source for driving, e.g., a printing head, high-precision printing can be realized.

Claims: A vibration driven apparatus, comprising: (a) a movable member (4); (b) an elastic supporting member (7) provided on said movable member (4); (c) a stationary member (8) having a contact surface; and (d) a vibration generating member (1) having a contact surface provided in press contact with the contact surface of said stationary member by the compression force of a pressing member (3') and being supported by said supporting member (7), characterized in that a stiffness of said supporting member (7) has a value required for the contact surface of said vibration generating member (1) to hold a substantially parallel state with respect to the contact surface of said stationary member (8) while a relative movement between said stationary member (8) and said vibration generating member (1) is induced by the vibration, wherein the stiffness value of said supporting member (7) is set such that a counterforce of said supporting member (7) is smaller than the compression force of said pressing member (3'). A vibration driven apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that said vibration generating member (1) is substantially elliptic and has a straight portion, wherein said contact surface is positioned at said straight portion. A vibration driven apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that said supporting member (7) is substantially planar. A vibration driven apparatus according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that said stationary member (8) is rail-shaped. A vibration driven apparatus according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the counterforce of said supporting member (7) is set to be equal to or lower than half a compression force of said pressing member (3'). A vibration driven apparatus according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that a projected portion (3a') is formed in said pressing member (3'), wherein said projected portion (3a') is in contact with said vibration generating member (1) so that said vibration generating member (1) is in press contact with said stationary member (8). A vibration driven apparatus according to claim 6, characterized by a compression plate (5) arranged between said projected portion (3a) and a felt (6') of said vibration generating member (1) in order to make the compression distribution uniform. A vibration driven apparatus according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterized in that said movable member (4) is moved, and thereby a printing head of a printer apparatus is moved. A vibration driven apparatus according to one of claims 1 to 8, characterized by a guide member for holding said movable member (4) such that a linear movement is possible.

Inventors: HARADA TOSHIAKI, KIMURA ATSUSHI, NISHIMOTO YOSHIFUMI, OKAMURA YOSHITAKA, SEKI HIROYUKI, TANAKA HIDEKI, YAMAMOTO SHINJI, HARADA, TOSHIAKI, KIMURA, ATSUSHI, NISHIMOTO, YOSHIFUMI, OKAMURA, YOSHITAKA, SEKI, HIROYUKI, TANAKA, HIDEKI, YAMAMOTO, SHINJI
Applicants: CANON KK, CANON KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Application year: 1993
Main classification: H01L41
IPC codes: B41J19, H02N2, H01L41