Effect of Clamping and Damping on Piezoelectric Bender Elements Available to Purchase

Piezoelectric benders are commonly utilized for transducing elements in phonograph cartridges or reciprocally as emf‐force devices. Their behavior in these applications has been well delineated in the literature. When the bender, used as a memory‐storage element, is clamped and damped by an encapsulant, it exhibits anomalous behavior, which is not clearly (if at all) described in the literature. The construction, application, and performance of benders encapsulated and used for this application are described. The results of chemical shrinkage, thermal coefficient of expansion (TCE), and dynamic properties of the encapsulant on the piezoelectric‐bender performance are delineated.