Kinetic Ceramics began with the development of a piezoelectrically driven artificial heart. This placed challenging demands on available ferroelectric materials and actuator fabrication methods and precipitated the start of pioneering developments in these areas by the parent company of Kinetic Ceramics, Physics International. In the 1970s the firm developed the first piezoelectric diesel fuel injection systems. In 1986 the Kinetic Ceramics name was born when the piezoelectric business unit split from the parent company. Since that time, Kinetic Ceramics has developed many piezoelectric diesel injection systems as well as gasoline direct injection systems and valve actuation systems for camless engines. The firm now specializes in supplying Piezomotor® actuators, translation devices and turnkey piezoelectric systems to industry in general. An example is the revolution that was enabled in contact lens manufacturing with the introduction of the Kinetic Ceramics Fast Tool Servo in 1998. This turnkey bolt on lathe axis enables direct machining of toric lenses at spindle speeds up to 6,000 RPM, which was heretofore impossible. The company serves the following industries: Aerospace and Defense, Automotive, Medical, Telecommunications, Semiconductor, Microelectronics, Optics, Ultrasonics, Metrology, Precision Machining, Laboratory/Basic.
