Tolomatic’s all-stainless-steel electric actuators ideal for caustic environments

Tolomatic (www.tolomatic.com) has introduced its latest all-stainless-steel ERD electric rod-style actuators, which are suitable for the most stringent applications in the food and beverage industry.

The choice of Viton seals and smooth stainless steel body design makes the new ERD an ideal solution for highly corrosive environments that maintain strict hygiene standards. Conforming to IP67 standards, the new ERD comprises all 304 stainless steel and optional protective motor enclosure, as well as offered in multiple screw technologies.

Tolomatic offers the stainless steel ERDs in two main options — the SS2 and SS1 option.

The SS1 option is offered in three varying sizes. It is a stainless steel version of the basic ERD, which features the IP67 option with Viton seals, protecting it from harsh washdown environments.

Meanwhile, the SS2 option comes in two different sizes and features various cabling options and a protective motor enclosure. This option also offers a selection of electrical connection such as industry-standard conduit threads or cord grips.

The stainless steel ERD is offered in stoke lengths of up to 12”. When used with Tolomatic’s NEMA23 stepper motor, the new ERD generates a maximum of 200 pounds of thrust or a maximum speed of 40 inches per second, depending on the choice of solid nut or ball nut. Ball nuts provide positioning accuracy, as well as repeatability with longer life, while solid nuts deliver quiet performance at a cheaper cost.

New Ball Screw and Guide Options for Tolomatic Actuator Series

Hamel, Minn. - Tolomatic has expanded its new line of ERD electric rod-style actuators to make the line more flexible than ever before. Enhancements such as ball screws, motor mounts for NEMA and metric stepper and servo motors, plus a guide option, make it possible to employ ERD actuators in many more types of motion control applications. Originally designed as an affordable replacement for pneumatic cylinders, the ERD has become a very economical actuator solution for applications such as product changeovers, pick-and-place, sorting and diverting, heat-staking and more.

The addition of ball screw choices improves the force range of the ERD up to 200 lb. The combination of NEMA and metric motor mounts allows users to select their preferred brand of servo or stepper motor. All three sizes of the ERD are available with an optional external guide system that prevents rod deflection and rotation during operation. The guide also features a tooling plate for mounting hardware.

www.tolomatic.com

Tolomatic Expands ‘Your Motor Here’ Program

Tolomatic has expanded its “Your Motor Here” program to include more than 80 actuator products in nine different series for inline and reverse-parallel drive configurations. The Your Motor Here (YMH) program allows designers an efficient way to match almost 50 brands and over 900 models of servo and stepper motors to Tolomatic’s actuators at no additional charge and delivered within 5 business days. Thousands of motor-linear actuator combinations are possible using Tolomatic’s easy-to-use YMH online configurator on the company’s Web site.

The expansion of Tolomatic’s YMH program now gives designers the freedom to use their preferred brand of motor with any of Tolomatic’s rod-style (RSA, GSA) or rod-less style (MXE, MXB, B3S, B3W) actuator products in inline or reverse-parallel drive configurations.

The YMH online configurator is easy to use for either inline or reverse-parallel motor mount combinations. From a series of drop-down windows, the user can select the motor manufacturer of choice, choose the motor series and select the motor model, and a list of matching Tolomatic actuators will be displayed. Once the actuator of choice is selected, verification of the motor and mounting plate dimensions can be made. A reference code for the mounting kit is provided for the order. Links are also provided to Tolomatic’s Sizing and Selection software to verify that the selected actuator is sized correctly, including a link to actuator 3D/2D CAD files.

Tolomatic
www.tolomatic.com

Misumi Expands LX Series Single Axis Actuator Line

Schaumburg, IL – Misumi USA, Inc. has further expanded its LX Series Single Axis Actuators with two new product lines: High Precision Class Actuators for use in ultra-precise positioning and indexing applications, and Motorized Actuators, which significantly reduce time and labor required to design, source and assemble actuators with motorized capabilities. Misumi’s LX Series Actuators are utilized across a wide range of industries for factory automation and motion control applications.

Here is an overview of the two new product lines:

–Misumi High Precision Class LX Actuators (LX20 and LX26) are available in standard or cover type versions and in a wide variety of combinations. Their compact size and incorporation of precision ground ball screw results in extremely precise positioning and indexing control, making them ideal for use in numerous factory automation machine applications. For example, they can be used in servo-driven insertion units, precision measurement units, pick and place tables, painting units, and other devices. LX Series High Precision Class Actuators typically ship in six (6) days and offer superior price/performance value over competitors’ high precision product offerings.

–Misumi LX Actuators with Motors (LX30 and LX45) are also available in standard or cover type versions and in a wide variety of combinations, with eight (8) types of stepper motors. The units come pre-assembled with the motor, driver, and user-defined peripheral parts (ball screws, sensor options and configurable cable length) already in place to save machine builders time and labor. Accessory options include jigs for motor -coupling alignment, mounting brackets and transition plates. The Motorized LX Actuators typically ship in 11 days.

Misumi’s LX Series models are available globally in over 1000 possible configurations and are covered in the New 2009 Single Axis Actuator Catalog. Specially designed brackets allow a combination of two units on a different axis. The single axis actuators are manufactured by Suruga Seiki Co., a MISUMI Group company widely known for its high quality positioning stages and rigorous quality and accuracy inspection processes. An inspection certificate is included with all LX Series products.

Misumi USA, Inc.
www.misumiusa.com

Rexroth CKK Ball Screw Actuators Raise Performance for Wind Turbine Builders

Wind turbine technology is an established sustainable, green technology. Many consider it a technology that will help define the energy future. But wind energy also depends, to a great extent, on more traditional manufacturing techniques, such as welding – vitally important for creating the massive towers.

One of the leaders in creating welding solutions for the energy industry – as well as many other applications – is Rexburg, ID-based machine builder AMET Inc. (www.ametinc.com). Recently, AMET called upon the Linear Motion and Assembly Technology specialists of Bosch Rexroth to help them create a new generation of custom welding systems for the increasingly important wind energy industry.

The design of AMET welding equipment – and the role of linear motion technologies – is largely dictated by the techniques required to create massive wind turbine towers that can be around 90 meters high (close to 300 feet). During a weld, while the bulk of the equipment remains stationary, the weld head constantly moves small distances along at least 2 axes, both along and across the seam. A linear control actuator mounted at the end of a horizontal arm determines the motion of the weld head.

AMET’s goal was to create a cost-effective, dependable welding system that could perform accurate longitudinal and circumferential submerged arc welding. One of the most important challenges, however, was to assure smooth and precise (within 1/100th of an inch) control of the weld head, to avoid improper welds that would need to be redone and ultimately result in wasted time and materials. And this precise control had to be maintained within a very demanding environment. “The tremendous amount of particulates, especially flux dust, generated by this form of welding can really cause problems for this machine’s finer controls, particularly with systems such as linear actuators,” said Craig Dees, AMET Engineering Manager.

AMET also wanted linear motion elements that offered good strength (dynamic loads in excess of 20,000 Newton) with light weight and compact size. Yet another challenge was to support smooth weld head acceleration of up to 3 meters per second squared (3m/s2), for a travel speed of 1.5 meters per minute.

To meet these needs, AMET turned to a familiar source for linear motion: Northwest Motion, Inc. (www.nwmotion.com), a distributor of Rexroth linear motion products. Rexroth precision-ground, hardened steel guide rails were to be specified for the guide rail that carries the suspended weld head for outside welding. With the CKK Compact Modules, however, AMET put Rexroth linear motion systems in a particularly crucial role.

The compact CKK design, light in weight but durable and strong, makes machine assembly smoother and easier. “We knew that other linear motion solutions couldn’t give us the reliability and protection against contamination and pitting that the CKK modules could,” Dees says.

Another important feature leading to better and faster machine production is the fact that CKK 20-145 modules are complete, prepackaged systems, with dual ball rails and a ball screw drive integrated into the module. This simplifies design, saves space, and removes the costs and effort of machining, assembly, bearing alignment and other application engineering tasks.

Download the complete case study from the Bosch Rexroth Case Studies & Technical Papers web page.

Bosch Rexroth
www.boschrexroth-us.com

Haydonkerk’s Combination Linear Slide and Motor

HaydonKerk Motion Solutions™ offers the Kerk RGS® linear slide assembly combined with the Haydon™ MotoDrive™ PDE Actuator, an integrated linear slide, stepper motor, and electronic drive assembly combined together in a single unit.

The Kerk RGS linear slide features a standard wear-compensating, anti-backlash driven carriage to ensure repeatable and accurate positioning. All moving surfaces include Kerkite® polymers running on either Kerkote® or Black Ice™ TFE coatings, providing a strong, stable platform for a variety of linear motion applications.

The Haydon MotoDrive is an integrated linear actuator and electronic drive designed to operate with optically isolated inputs of pulse, direction and enable signals. The MotoDrive is programmable for micro-stepping ranging from full step mode to 64 micro steps per full step. Step resolution ranges from 200 full steps per revolution to 12,800 steps per revolution when micro-stepping. With a supply voltage of 12 to 42 Vdc, the MotoDrive Actuator functions with a factory-programmable run current of up to 2.6 A (rms) per phase. The drive direction is enabled with logic level voltage, and is activated using +5 Vdc. When operated at ground potential, the drive executes a retract move of the actuator.

Combining components into a complete optimized assembly helps reduce risk, increase safety, and improve integration for the OEM or end user resulting in a lower overall system cost.

To find out more, contact HaydonKerk Motion Solutions at info@HaydonKerk.com.

www.hsi-inc.com

More Accurate Electric Screw Actuators

When customers choose different packaging bags to keep their costs down, it can affect how packaging machines operate. Such was the case faced by Thiele Technologies, a leader in packaging technology and equipment. Its bagging systems measure, fill and seal bags containing anything from pet food to salt, sugar, dirt, seed, fertilizer or animal feed.

One of its customers recently switched to bags with irregular dimensions. But the bags slowed the production process, which requires high-speed accuracy to meet manufacturing goals. Thiele engineers needed to alter a popular modular bag filling and sealing system to compensate for the dimensional inconsistencies.  Read more