What is a “Flexure” Positioner?
A flexure is a, strictionless device that relies upon the elastic deformation (flexing) of a solid material. Sliding and rolling are entirely eliminated from the design. The flexure device is limited to applications where the required travel is typically no more than 10-15% of the major dimension of the device. In addition to having no internal friction, flexure devices have high stiffness, high load capacity, and high resistance to shock. They also exhibit a low sensitivity to vibration. Users should be aware that in all standard flexures, there is a second-order cross coupling between axis. This movement is called arcuate motion (travel is in an arc motion). For fine positioning applications as in fiber optic alignment, and integrated optics, this is seldom a problem. In addition, if precise rectilinear movement is required, then compound flexure devices eliminate the arcuate motion and are readily available.
