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.

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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

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Tolomatic’s Your Motor Here (YMH) program allows designers an efficient way to match 50 brands of stepper or servo drive motors with Tolomatic’s actuators at no additional charge.

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

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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

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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.

The design of AMET welding equipment is largely dictated by the techniques required to create massive wind turbine towers that can be nearly 90 meters high.

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

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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

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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. 

Two ganged Tolomatic actuators center the bags in the staging trays while two other actuators adjust the vertical position.

Because repeatability was critical to the filling and sealing operation, the engineers chose four custom electric screw linear actuators from Tolomatic, Hamel, Minn., that precisely position incoming empty bags. The bagging system now automatically compensates for variations in bag dimensions and eliminates manual setup when changing bag sizes.

The original version of the bagging system was automated except for the tray that positioned the empty bags prior to them being picked up and inserted into the filling line.  When using bags with consistent dimensions, the trays required only a simple manual adjustment at the start of a run. When customers switched to other bags, some would not be positioned accurately, resulting in an improper fill and seal.

“Pet food manufacturers were forced to switch from paper bags to woven poly bags because their customers—large retail chains—would reject entire truckloads of product if there was a single ‘leaker’ bag,” says Jon Gifford, R&D manager with Thiele Technologies.  “Woven poly bags proved to be much tougher, but because of higher costs, China has become the predominant supplier. With bag lengths varying by as much as three-quarters of an inch, bag handling problems occur. To solve this problem, we developed a ‘bag top reference’ mechanism to compensate for these varying lengths.”

The standard Tolomatic B3S Series of rodless electric linear actuators handles heavy and high-moment loads with consistent, smooth operation.  It can be modified for a wide variety of special applications.

The bag top reference mechanism uses four modified-standard Tolomatic B3S10 rodless electric screw actuators to precisely position the incoming bags before they are inserted into the filling/sealing line. Two of the actuators, each one operated by a separate servomotor, adjust the vertical position of the bags. As bags are loaded into the staging trays, the vertical actuators catch the bags and lower the bag tops to a precise reference point determined by two video cameras controlled by the system’s PLC.

At the same time, the bags are centered in their trays by two horizontal B3S10 actuators that have been extensively modified. Each horizontal actuator has two carriers riding on a screw with right-hand threads on one half and left-hand threads on the other half.  As the screw turns, each carrier pair moves toward each other to center the bag in the tray.  The two actuators are joined by a coupler and are operated by one servomotor connected by a compact 180-degree Tolomatic belt drive.  Once the bags are vertically aligned and centered, they are picked up by a pneumatic arm and inserted into the filling/sealing line.

The design tolerance for positioning the tops of the bags is +/- 0.031 in. The actuators deliver the required precision despite bag variations.

Thiele’s bagging system includes a bag-handling module, a filling module and one or two sealing modules, depending on the style of bag being sealed.  The system will handle bags from 11 to 19 in. wide and 16 to 41 in. long.

Gifford wanted to use electric screw actuators for the bag trays because they are faster and more accurate, but there was no off-the-shelf system available. “Tolomatic provided a modified system that was also affordable,” he says. Their design is robust.  For example, the stainless steel band that seals the actuator as it moves protects the internal parts from dust, dirt and corrosion and reduces maintenance better than other designs.

Tolomatic Inc.
www.tolomatic.com

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