Helping Hand

Actuators literally run our world. And we don’t even know what they are

- Shashank Singh

When was the last time you sat down with your car- or motorcycle loving friends and discussed actuators? Never, yes? They get no love from us. But they make it possible to accelerate, brake, steer, change gear. All of this while making yourself at home in the seat or in the saddle. They also do all the work when you select a drive mode, change the ride height in your fancy SUV, firm up suspension or improve suspension response. You press a button and somewhere in the belly of your beast, an actuator does all the work.

An actuator is a device that turns any work into the press of a button for you and me. In technical terms, they are force multipliers which execute our commands, making possible things human hands could not do while saving money, manpower and time.

And they are everywhere. Massive aircrafts take to the sky thanks to the actuators while the pilot and co-pilot essentially press buttons and move the stick about. All the controls connect up to actuators that operate the control surfaces. And autopilot is a computer that controls actuators. The examples are everywhere!