Festo (www.festo.com) has released its latest ELGG bi-parting drive which features a pair of bearing guides that supports two similar carriages, driven by a toothed belt connected to the bottom of one carriage and the top of the other.
The ELGG offers an adaptable and cost-effective means of ensuring tow carriages’ simultaneous movement — in opposite directions — on one linear axis.
Based on the cost-optimized design concept of a famous low-cost Festo electric actuator, the company’s new electric bi-parting drive eliminates the need for a full length profile utilized by traditional toothed belt axes. It guarantees straight line movement of the carriages, by relying on the rigidity of the steel bearing guides. An extremely robust and rigid structure is achieved as the bearing guides are supported on both ends and the electric bi-parting drive provides the option of a center support. Built on the same aluminum profile, the carriages and the supports help minimize cost and employ asymmetric extrusion geometry to deliver the required offset.
Available in 35 mm, 45 mm and 55 mm wide profiles, the ELGG drives offer standard stoke lengths of 400 mm, 500 mm and 750 mm per carriage, respectively. For higher loads and speeds, the moving carriages can also be designed with re-circulating ball bearing guides or with sliding bushing. Depending on the drive’s configuration, all models are capable of repeatable positioning accuracies to within ±100 microns, offer longer in-service life that is beyond 5,000 km of travel and deliver speed as high as three meters/second.
It is compatible with Festo’s wide array of stepper and servo motors and controllers, as well as with third-party motors.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.