Abstract:A bidirectional driving laminated piezoelectric actuator is designed for reciprocating drive applications. It helps to improve the working range of the same kind of actuators based on the triangle amplification theory. The finite element model of the amplification mechanism’s driving mechanism is established for the static analysis and structure parameter optimization. The output characteristic test of the prototype shows that the amplification factor of the actuator reaches 5.45 and is 4.77% and 5.69% lower than that of the finite element analysis (5.71) and analytical calculation (5.76) respectively. The bidirectional initiative driving test shows that: the actuator move as long as 105.5μm under 200 Vpp(peak-to-peak voltage) sinusoidal voltage and the distance increases monotonically when the driving voltage rises with a high degree of linearity (R2=0.997). The driving frequency has little effect on the characteristic of an actuator. The distance decreases by about 0.04μm per 10 Hz increment. The hysteresis effect of the advanced actuator combined the amplification mechanism is much better than that of laminated piezoelectric actuator alone. Besides, the hysteresis loop is symmetrical along the centerline.