A new positioning and loading system for the study of the mechanical behavior of small and micro components

A new positioning and loading system has been designed and implemented to provide spatial positioning and loading in small and micro components test. The system consists of a micro-loading unit and a spatial positioning stage. The micro-loading unit includes two parts: loading cell and micro lo ad measuring part. The spatial positioning stage is a three-dimensional moving platform driven by the piezoelectric ceramics. Typical parameters of the system are 8mm long in shifting range of the positioning stage, sub-micrometer resolution in spatial positioning, and from several Newtons to several tens micro Newtons for loading. The elaboration on the system is presented in the paper and an experiment is performed to demonstrate its performance.f