Aerotech (www.aerotech.com) has unveiled a new PRO-LM range of direct-drive, brushless linear servomotor-driven stages. The range now includes a new 280mm wide version that comes in eight travel options from 300mm to 1.5m for heavy-load precision positioning and high-throughput applications in harsh environments. The fully protected and side-sealed/hard-top stages have heavy-duty linear motion guide bearings, optional cable management and sub-micron encoder feedback. These are available in nominal widths of 165mm, 225mm and 280mm, which can be mixed to optimize application load and travel requirements.

The new PRO280LM is based on the successful side-sealed design that the company has developed over the past generations of ball screw-driven stages and linear motor. The aluminum hard top cover – finished in a scratch-resistant hard coat – is a preferred alternative to plastic bellows or soft fabric stage covers, especially made for applications like laser machining. Its vertical-tensioned side straps completely seal the internal stage components from process or machining debris. A wide array of optional tabletops with steel inserts permit YZ, XZ or XY configurations with other PRO series stages with 5arc-sec orthogonality certification. Tabletop plates are available for Aerotech’s AGR, ADRT and ADRS series rotary stages or to suit customer workpiece mounting in inch and metric hole patterns. Cable management is also available for single-axis or customer-specified XYZ+rotary, XY, and XYZ stage configurations.

Aerotech said that its new PRO280LM features a positioning resolution of 250nm from a choice of amplified sine output encoders or 0.1 micron line driver. Additional impressive specifications include accuracy to +/-3 microns for the 1.5m travel version (+/-2 microns for the 300mm travel stage) with speeds to 2m/s and acceleration to 3g.