Design and Testing of an Innovative Wire Transmission for a Quarter-Turn Actuator

The object of this work is the development of an innovative wire actuator in collaboration with Velan ABV S.p.A., which will be mainly used in applications in which high efficiency and linear behavior are desirable specifications. In this work, the main features of the proposed actuator, which is protected by a patent, are evaluated and compared with respect to a conventional solution consisting of a scotch yoke (SY) transmission system. The comparison is performed using both the simulation results and the experimental data. In order to identify the efficiency and the dynamical response of the innovative actuator, the authors have designed a hydraulic test rig, which can be configured to perform different testing procedures. In this way, it is possible to perform both static tests to identify actuator efficiency, and dynamic ones, in which an assigned load or a valve impedance function is simulated to verify the response of the tested actuator in realistic conditions. Finally, the proposed test rig has been successfully employed to perform both reliability and fatigue tests in which the actuator is subjected to realistic and repetitive loads.