Electric Linear Actuators–The Mechatronic Choice

If you’ve not looked at electric linear actuators lately, you may be missing out.  Today’s electric linear actuators exemplify mechatronic principles as well as offer more power than earlier versions, with advances in other features including force and load capabilities, and control.

By Randy Bowman, Market Manager –
TECHLINE™ Div., Linak
Crystal McGrew, Marketing Communications

Rapid technological advances and changes in environmental, safety and ergonomic requirements have increased the options and capabilities available in motion control systems.  Despite these
advances, though, the temptation to stay with previous choices can be strong.  In some industries, there are biases toward certain motion systems, either because of limited knowledge about alternatives or because of precedent.  For example, hydraulic powered motion is traditionally the standard in the agriculture industry, pneumatics in certain process industries, and highprecision stepper motors and linear guides in automation. However, motion industry advances have made it necessary for companies and engineers to re-evaluate current choices and biases, and make an educated decision as to what may be the best overall option for the application.

The LINAK® LA36 actuator suits industrial, agricultural and marine environments. It offers a maximum force of 2200 lbs and maximum speeds of 6.3 ips.  It operates with either a 12 V, 24 V, or 36 Vdc motor with protection class IP66/IP69K, mechanical overload protection, integrated brake with high self-lock ability, and built in end stop switches.
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Danaher Motion Introduces MechaWare 3.0

SANTA BARBARA, CALIF ­— Danaher Motion introduces MechaWare 3.0 ­— the industry’s only mechatronic toolkit that seamlessly integrates mechanical systems and control software design resulting in faster design cycles, superior motion system performance, and faster time to market.

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Encoders for Linear Motors in the Electronics Industry

As more semiconductor machines incorporate linear motors, it is crucial to select the right position encoder. Encoders with optical scanning methods enhance the accuracy, speed stability, and thermal behavior of a direct drive.

By Dr. Jens Kummetz,
Marketing Application Development,
Dr. Johannes Heidenhain GmbH

The semiconductor industry continues to demand tighter precision and faster operating speeds from machines in order to satisfy growing demands on quality, production, and size reduction. Linear motors are becoming more important in such highly dynamic applications that use one or more feed axes. The benefits of direct drive technology are low wear, low maintenance, and more throughput.
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Precision Torque Limiter with Clamping Hub

The SK1 with clamping hub uses a single screw radial clamping hub in place of the traditional tapered conical clamping connection.

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DC Gearmotor

The Series M32P DC gearmotors consist of an iron-core rotor and graphite commutation joined to a metal planetary gearhead.

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Servo Motor

The QCI-A34L-1 requires 4.5A, which means a single cable can be used for both motor and encoder signals, and can be driven from a small SilverDust D2 controller.

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Speed Controllers

The FE100/FE200 speed controller has a 200 to 2,400 rpm (12:1) speed range that can be easily set through the speed knob on the front of its box.

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Silicon, the Final Frontier (2)

When you consider the technical issues of making semiconductors, it seems impossibly difficult. Semiconductor fabrication requires lithographic processes to create features that are measured fractions of an Angstrom, the unit of measure of wavelengths of light. Pretty small. The least contamination or vibration that isn’t supposed to be there can ruin parts.

Wafer polishing machines must polish the slices of silicon to a flatness and perfection that can’t be measured by conventional means. Multi-axis robots handle silicon wafers in vacuum chambers without putting the tiniest scratch on the surface. Wafer cassettes with $250 to $500K worth of uncut chips have to be shuttled from process machine to process machine inspected and tested for defects. Read more

Got Control? Part 2

So when is a PC (personal computer) a PAC (programmable automation controller) or a PLC (programmable logic controller)? They are all the same. They all have microprocessors. They are all programmable. They are all available with hardware that is rated for industrial environments, shock, vibration, temperature extremes and various other requirements. They are all connected to real world devices such as sensors, switches, etc. They all execute control based on a programmed binary model of a real world manufacturing process.

They have differing abilities in terms of data storage and throughput. In previous generations of PLC and CNC, the memory for those systems was very expensive and early memories were hand wound wire and discrete magnet memory. With the advent of mass manufactured memory for the PC, the industrial platforms have had to engineer hardware with different components to take advantage of competitive costs. A hard disk drive module was available for some PLC systems where extensive process information was needed.

In today’s market one vendor offers an industrial computer platform that replaces the PLC, the HMI (human to machine interface) and uses a touch screen interface, using the PC platform to reduce control system costs in many applications by doing several functions with the same hardware. Sounds like a Tablet PC engineered for the plant floor. Nothing unreasonable about that. Read more

Got Control?

The modern era of manufacturing is largely an outgrowth of controls. And that migration has had a long history since the relay logic and Computer Numerical Control systems of the 1950’s. (CNC for any younger readers that might not know what some of these crazy acronyms actually stand for). Would high speed automation of manufacturing be possible without control systems?

Probably not. And since all business is ultimately governed by return on investment, what are the implications on manufacturing processes when control systems cost in the tens of thousands of dollars as they did in the Seventies? Or over time, as the cost of control has decreased, are we justified in putting a controller on everything?

Is the alphabet soup of industrial control the basis of real distinctions in functionality? Or is it a matter of keeping the domain of a particular field of application in the hands of a few suppliers of proprietary solutions? In the early days, I think a lot of new control frontiers were driven by the demands of particular industries, Military and Aerospace applications of CNC’s where speed and precision were required, and high costs were acceptable. This stimulated the creation of a whole universe of equipment which, as with all things electronic, have become more affordable over time. Read more

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