Design and Fabrication of A Moving Coil Actuator for Jet Dispensers

Abstract

A moving coil actuator (MCA) operated based on the electromagnetic principle is proposed to drive a jet valve needle of the jet dispenser. The resistance force impacting the needle is a crucial parameter in the MCA design, and it is measured based on the experimental model of the jet valve. The 2D simulation model of MCA is modified by the finite element method (FEM) to improve the thrust force generated by MCA. The MCA prototype is fabricated based on the modified dimensions from the simulation step. Then, the measuring system is set to figure out the MCA thrust force and maximum operating frequency. The simulation result shows that, the thrust force of the modified model is higher than 30% compared with that of the model before modification. The experiment results show that, the MCA thrust force is high enough to actuate the jet valve needle, and the maximum operating frequency is 120 Hz. MCA-based jet dispenser operates steadily with the dot size error of about 5 - 8%