Active control of orthotropic plates subjected to an impulse loading is considered. The dynamic response is minimized using in-plane forces or bending moments induced by piezoelectric stiffeners bonded to the opposite surfaces of the plate and placed symmetrically with respect to the middle plane. The control forces and moments are activated by a piece-wise constant alternating voltage with varying switch-over time intervals. The magnitude of voltage is bounded while the switch-over time intervals are constantly adjusted to achieve an optimum control. Numerical examples presented in the paper demonstrate the effectiveness of the method and the possibility of reducing the vibrations to very small amplitudes within a short time interval which is in the order to a second.