The demands on the automation of industrial processes are high: The continuously increasing throughput in production processes should be enabled while maintaining or improving product quality. For this purpose, fast production lines are required that are equipped with reliable sensor technology. Piezo technology has been indispensable in innovative and automated industrial processes for a long time already and so it always opens up new possibilities and broad fields of application – be it in production or monitoring.

In fully automated production lines, e.g., the assembly of electronics components, a high-precision and dynamic dispensing of various liquids is a fundamental requirement. Printing on circuit boards with adhesives or precisely dosing soldering pastes on electronic chips, dosing melted polymers or printing with ink and other media with different viscosity – such dispensing processes require exact quantities in the range of micro- or even nanoliters, which must be dispensed without contact within the shortest dosing cycles. This is exactly what piezo elements can deliver.

In addition, numerous highly automated technologies need smart monitoring that can easily be integrated into existing processes – here also, piezo technology can be used as ultrasonic transducers. With the help of acoustic waves, the monitoring of processes can be carried out without contact, this is a big advantage in, for example, the automated liquid or gas flow metering or the structural monitoring of difficult to access components such as rotor blades of wind turbines.

In industrial applications as well as in marine technologies, piezo ceramics improve sonar or underwater communication. The acoustic waves can travel long distances under water and so enable innovative technologies.