Sorting out servopneumatics
Servopneumatic, electromechanical, and proportional-hydraulic control systems all have a place in industrial-automation equipment, product testing, and animation. However, most applications do not need the precision of electromechanical systems or the high forces of hydraulics. Servopneumatics, which includes a controller, linear actuator, valve, and feedback sensors, can meet most requirements and offer substantial savings over the other systems....
Integrated Architecture Simplifies Motion and Machine Control
It's no secret that most every manufacturer today is under the gun to get products to market faster, run their operations more efficiently, and react quicker to market shifts...
Stepper Motor Closes The Loop Around Tough Moves
When it comes to position control, the choice is often between a stepper motor and a servomotor. Because stepper motors typically have more poles than servomotors, they produce a lot of torque for their size. They are also stable and provide quick and accurate moves. Moreover, the fact that they are open-loop devices means that they cost less than a comparable servomotor which requires an encoder or resolver for position feedback. ...
Super-accurate linear encoder keeps a low profile
An exposed incremental linear encoder from Heidenhain Corp., Schaumburg, Ill., combines a photolithographically produced grating on its scale tape with newly designed scanning optics to guarantee high accuracy. ...
Synchronizing when speed counts
Precision motion control is virtually never an end in itself. Rather, it ties position to other events or activities. As the need for application speed and precision rises, it becomes necessary to better synchronize motion to external events....
Hydraulics aids trash-to-energy conversion
Hydraulics is known for generating large forces from compact packages. But it's also extremely rugged, often performing without fail under operating conditions that would quickly do in other motion-control technologies...
T-connect for steppers
Most engineers in the motion-control industry agree that a common frustration with stepmotors involves finding the right motor to solve their various application issues. Whether the application needs more torque, quieter resonance, cooler operation, or smoother motion, altering the electrical specification of a stepmotor helps modify performance to better suit specific application needs. ...
The future of auto development
The automotive industry has faced considerable challenges over the last couple of years, overcapacity, ultracompetitive markets, fluctuating commodity prices, rising pension and health costs, and tightening environmental and regulatory pressures. It's gotten to the point that some industry observers have dubbed the current situation the "Perfect Storm." ...
How to model massive assemblies
Each program is modular and swaps data with the others. Solid Edge V20 runs on Microsoft Vista, adds more support for 64-bit processors, includes over 170 other new enhancements, sports a new Catia V5 bidirectional translator, and imports STL files for viewing...
The good stuff may cost less
They have learned that it is usually false economy to shop around for the lowest prices. When the bookkeeping cost of adding a new vendor doesn't eat up the savings, higher vendor-qualification and maintenance costs usually will....
The path to precise motion control
Precise electronic motion controllers are certainly important in today’s advanced manufacturing environment. But to get the most out of the controllers, companies need mechanical systems that can take full advantage of their instructions. After all, linear-motion hardware executes the motion. Engineers should be aware of a few issues to get the most performance out of their machines....
Tiny micros open new frontiers
Microcontrollers have been shrinking ever since their first introduction. As they get smaller, designers are using them in more and more applications including motors, motor controls, and general mechatronics. ...
To Bus Or Not To Bus
What kind of information typically does a servo send out over a digital bus network? There seems to be different schools of thought about how to use different bus schemes, or even when an analog interface is more appropriate....
To infinity … and beyond!
It may sound far-fetched, but the day is coming when lasers will beam power to spacecraft, lunar/Martian rovers, and sherpalike robots that carry payloads up a thin tether into the upper atmosphere and beyond. Although researchers worldwide concur that power-beaming capabilities are decades away, a range of experimental efforts give promise that lasers may, in the not too distant future, provide cheap, safe, and reliable access to space....
Weld-Gun Actuator Exceeds 10 Million Cycles
The SW Series Actuators from Tol-O-Matic, Hamel, Minn. (tolomatic.com), are based on a compact, maintenance-free design. An eight-pole Nd-Fe-B hollow-core rotor with skewed stator laminations provides low-cogging torque. This reportedly results in force never changing more than ±3.0% over millions of weld cycles. The design offers weld forces to 2,500 lb and peak force of 4,400 lb. ...
