Bringing
Thunder and Lightning Indoors
Consumer/Home/Recreation
Originating Technology/ NASA Contribution
Piezoelectric materials convert mechanical energy
into electrical energy and electrical energy into
mechanical energy. They generate electrical charges
in response to mechanical stress and generate mechanical
displacement and/or force when subjected to an electric
current.
Scientists at Langley Research Center have developed
a piezoelectric device that is superior in many ways
to those that used to be the only ones commercially
available. It is tougher, has far greater displacement
and greater mechanical load capacity for a comparative
voltage operation, can be easily produced at a relatively
low cost, and lends itself well to mass production.
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Face International Corporation
has a manufacturing plant in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, where
it mass produces the Thunder and Lightning piezoelectric
components.
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The NASA-developed piezoelectric device is also unique
in that it is more efficient in extracting electrical
energy from the mechanical energy that goes in. It
works on a simple principle. A thin ceramic piezoelectric
wafer is sandwiched between an aluminum sheet and
a steel sheet and held together with LaRC-SI, an
amorphous thermoplastic adhesive with special properties
created by NASA at Langley. The sandwich is heated
in an autoclave, and the adhesive melts. When the
sandwich cools, the adhesive bonds the parts together
into one piezoelectric element. While they cool,
the components of the element contract at different
rates, since they are made of different materials.
This differential shrinkage causes the element to
warp in either a convex or concave shape, depending
on which way it is oriented. The shrinking of the
outside metal layers places the inside piezoelectric
ceramic under mechanical stress. If the element is
cantilevered by clamping one side and then plucked,
it reverberates like a diving board that has just
ejected a diver.
This way, a small amount of mechanical energy can
result in a relatively long period of electrical
generation. When the piezoelectric element is used
for the creation of electricity, it is called Lightning.
This same sandwiched piezoelectric wafer can also
convert electrical energy into mechanical energy.
Then, it is called Thunder. Electricity goes in, excites
the element, and then, mechanical energy in the form
of movement
is generated.
Partnership
Face
International Corporation, of Norfolk, Virginia,
holds several licenses to the Langley piezoelectric
technology, including the patent on LaRC-SI and the
exclusive international marketing rights. Face is
now manufacturing a commercial version in mass quantities
with its manufacturing partner, Sunnytec Company
Ltd., at a new plant in Taiwan.
Product Outcome
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When completely assembled,
the Lightning Switch looks much like a typical garage
door opener.
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The first mass application of this piezoelectric
technology is Face International’s Lightning Switch.
The Lightning Switch is a wireless, batteryless,
remote-controlled light switch, a way to install
or replace light switches without any new wiring
and without batteries. It is certified for use in
the United States and Canada.
Test marketing of the Lightning Switch product started
rather humbly last fall, with three mall kiosks in
Hampton Roads, Virginia, and an Internet site devoted
to the device.
During the test marketing, the product was also aimed
at holiday shoppers who might want a remote switch
for turning on and off Christmas lights. Holiday
revelers who plugged the lights in behind the tree
and would otherwise have to move mounds of gifts
could now turn the lights on and off without having
to brave the tinsel.
The Lightning Switch consists of a remote control
transmitter that is modeled after a standard European
light switch and a receiver that either plugs into
an electrical socket or is wired into an electrical
junction box. Pushing the button on the remote control
generates enough electricity to send a coded radio
signal to the receiver to switch on whatever is plugged
or wired into the receiver.
Holiday sales at the kiosks were promising, and Internet
sales also contributed to the early success, but
these were essentially a marketing experiment for
Face International. Serious efforts to penetrate
the North American market are underway during this
second half of 2005 as Face International begins
offering the Lightning Switch for sale through electrical
supply houses.
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The Lightning Switch mounts
anywhere and requires no wiring.
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Although it was, in part, marketed as a device for
turning on and off Christmas lights, the customers
have found many additional, clever uses for the Lightning
Switch. The majority of people have used it to install,
replace, or rewire lighting controls without the
hassle and cost
of knocking holes in the walls and ceilings, or having
to hire an electrician. The Lightning Switch installs
in
minutes and can save hundreds of dollars per switch
in rewiring costs.
A popular use of the Lightning Switch is in leased
or rental properties, where certain tenants may want
a switch in one spot, while the next resident may
want to have the switch elsewhere. With this device,
both can be accommodated, and with no added expenditure
by the landlord.
Other uses that customers have found for the device
include a taxi-calling system for hotel bellmen;
as a call-for-assistance system in assisted living
facilities, nursing homes, and hospitals; a control
lift for the elderly or disabled; and a signal for
a casino table dealer to call for drinks or additional
chips.
In addition, it has been used as a notification system
for doctors to indicate to nurses when they are ready
for the next patient, to trigger lights on the end
of a boat dock, as a safety alert for factory floors,
in foot switches for wireless tattoo guns, and to
control heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning
elements.
Customers have found it helpful for controlling landscape
lighting, fountains, and pumps for ponds, and as
a safe electrical device in wet areas, such as by
pools or hot tubs. Some have even planned to employ
it for grounds security, with the transmitters packaged
to be put in the ground, on doors, gates, and entryways,
for permanent wireless and batteryless intruder alerts.
Design-oriented entrepreneurs at retail establishments
have used the Lightning Switch as a control for store
fixture lighting, while art collectors have used
it for backlighting framed pieces. So, while it was
being marketed in malls as a Christmas light switch,
consumers saw even more potential.
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Worker in a cleanroom at
the plant in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, where the piezoelectric
elements are manufactured. The plant has the capability
to produce tens of thousands of pieces per month.
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During this test marketing phase, Brad Face, Face
International president, had even larger plans. He
was in negotiations to have a manufacturing plant
erected
to meet the growing need for this technology in additional
applications. The new plant, in Kaohsiung, Taiwan,
opened in February 2005. It manufactures and assembles
the Lightning Switch products as well as Lightning
and Thunder piezoelectric elements. The manufacturing
lines mainly consist of machinery that was designed
and built for the express purpose of making these
products. It gives Face International the capacity
to produce 30,000 Lightning or Thunder piezoelectric
elements, 30,000 Lightning transmitters, and 100,000
receivers each month. The capacity can be increased
in increments of 30,000 by adding work shifts or
duplicating the manufacturing line. With this capability,
the company is prepared to respond to any demand.
There is a large demand developing for these products
and not only in North America. Currently, Face International
is in contract negotiations with housing development
contractors in South Africa, where the Lightning
products have the potential to save builders millions
of dollars annually. Houses can be assembled quicker
without electrical wiring to the switches, and at
considerable savings of skilled labor and materials.
The Lightning Switch can then be used to install
switches in houses after construction.
Beyond the Lightning Switch, Face International has
other applications of the NASA-invented piezoelectric
element in development. Using the Thunder version
of this piezoelectric product, Face International
is
working on improving hearing loss assessment technologies.
Assessment of hearing loss is normally conducted
by testing for minimum sound level detection. There
are two forms of tests used for the basic evaluation
of auditory function. The first, air-conduction testing,
involves presenting precisely calibrated sounds to
the ears, usually by routing the signals through
headphones to the external ear canal. The second,
bone-conduction testing, sends precisely calibrated
vibrations through the bones of the skull to the
inner ear system. Stimulation is received at the
skull by placing a transducer either on the mastoid
region behind the ear to be tested or through transducer
placement on the forehead.
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Face International Corporation
has partnered with the Hearing Center of the Hollins
Communications Research Institute to create durable
and accurate hearing test equipment using the NASA
piezoelectric technology.
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There has been a long-standing problem inherent in
the construction and function of bone-conduction
transducers used in auditory testing. Typically,
these devices have been restricted in the usable
frequency range, particularly above 4000 Hertz, and
they have been limited in the amplitude with which
sound can be presented to the skull. Bone-conduction
transducers have relied on electromechanical components
to generate the vibrations. Such transducers do not
operate in a linear manner, and, as a result, individual
audiometers must be calibrated to the idiosyncratic
properties of the bone-conduction transducer to be
used with that system. A further problem arises when
the transducers are used on a daily basis. When dropped,
the transducers frequently break or alter their output
characteristics.
Researchers at the Hearing Center of the Hollins
Communications Research Institute (HCRI), in Roanoke,
Virginia, have been working on development of a new
audiometric system for hearing assessment. They have
partnered with Face International to create a new
bone-conduction transducer that would overcome the
major shortcomings of traditional transducers. The
new transducers are the correct physical size, with
the desired frequency range, linear operation across
the relevant range, significant increases in power
levels, and they come in a rugged package. The new
HCRI/Face International bone-conduction transducers
hold up to daily clinical use and even passed the
informal stress tests of being dropped on the floor
repeatedly.
Brad Face alludes to other applications, most of
which are still in their infancy. But with the ability
of the new manufacturing plant to create as many
of the elements as he could need, and the myriad
uses customers are finding for the technology, the
applications are limitless.
Lightning® and Thunder® are registered trademarks
of Face International Corporation.
Lightning Switch™ is a trademark of Face International
Corporation.
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