Exchanging expertise with universities
6-month industrial placement program
Steffen Lapp will be with Noliac on a 6-month industrial placement program supported by the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA). Steffen is a German engineer and Postdoctoral Research Associate with the Institute of Thin Films, Sensors and Imaging at the University of the West of Scotland. Steffen has a background in microsystem engineering and thin film deposition & characterisation, which makes him a perfect match with the work at Noliac.
Developing the Piezo Actuator Drive
Noliac offers a unique motor called the Piezo Actuator Drive (PAD). The PAD is a drive technology transforming the linear motion of high performance piezoelectric multilayer actuators into a powerful and precisely controllable rotation. We continue to improve the PAD, and Steffen will join the development of drivers for the PAD scalable in power range as well as developing concepts for torque feedback.
A great experience, both professionally and socially
Steffen has been with Noliac since December 2014, and he is very satisfied with his stay so far. Steffen explains:
- My stay at Noliac has been a great experience both professionally and socially. It has been interesting to work on the development of the drivers for the PAD, where we have made good results. I have been able to use many different aspects of my experience, and I have gained useful hands-on expertise working with the R&D projects. My colleagues at Noliac have been very nice to me, and we have had some fun social arrangements. We all went out to dinner at one time, and recently we also were out driving go-carts. All in all, I am very pleased that I entered this industrial program.
Steffen’s professor, Katherine Kirk of University of West Scotland, will visit Noliac April 27th to evaluate the stay and see the projects Steffen has been working on.
Close relationship with universities
At Noliac, we constantly look for ways to increase our piezo expertise on strategic areas as well as supporting the development of piezo expertise at university level. Therefore, we have close relationships with a number of universities focusing on piezo technology. The arrangement with the University of the West of Scotland is just one example of these relationships.
