"Piezoelectric Ceramics" for tight materials for epidemic coronavirus prevention and control

A few days ago, Stefan Dräger, CEO of the world's leading ventilator manufacturer and the German Drager company, gave this number in an interview with the media, "The current market demand for ventilator and protective masks is far higher than the supply capacity of the entire industry. The demand for ventilator alone exceeds 10 times the global supply capacity, and the protective mask may reach 100 times. "In an exclusive interview with the German World ", Stefan Dräger said .

Generally speaking, medical device companies are called "screwdriver factories" and do not produce parts independently. The production of ventilator and other equipment needs to rely on a very complicated global supply chain. In order to prevent the spread of the epidemic, all parts of the world have been blocked. Without parts, the equipment will not be able to run. The lack of parts will make the delivery time of the equipment far away. Reluctant delivery problems will also cause big trouble.

Piezoelectric ceramics are one of the important components of the ventilator. The piezoelectric ring transducer has been analyzed briefly for everyone before. For details, please poke: the "heavy device" ventilator against the coronavirus : piezoelectric ceramics are indispensable. Recently, in the PZT piezo ring powder community, a lot of friends who made mask machines came out to find piezoelectric ceramics and traced its roots. We found that piezoelectric ceramics are the core components of the transducers used in ultrasonic welding machines for mask machines. Due to the shortage of piezoelectric ceramics, the price of transducers for super-welding machines has risen from seven or eight hundred to more than two thousand. Some “downlords” have even offered prices of seven or eight thousand, which is simply amazing. Raw materials have risen, parts have risen, equipment has risen. In the past, the price of the super-welding machine bought in the thousands of dollars has risen to 21,000, while a mask machine requires 6 ultrasonic welding machines (some indentations everywhere on the mask, such as seals) The sides, ear straps, breathing valves, etc. are all ultrasonically welded).

The following is a brief introduction to the principle of ultrasonic welding: when ultrasonic waves act on the contact surface of thermoplastics, they will generate tens of thousands of high-frequency vibrations per second (this must be achieved by piezo ring welding componnets). This high-frequency vibration with a certain amplitude, The ultrasonic energy is transmitted to the welding zone through the weldment, and under pressure, the two objects rub against each other to form a fusion between the molecular layers. When the ultrasonic wave stops acting, let the pressure last for a few seconds to make it solidify and form, so as to form a strong molecular chain, to achieve the purpose of welding, the welding strength can be close to the original material.