Exlar Corporation (www.exlar.com) has announced its award to be the provider of linear actuators to the AWE (Advanced Weapons Elevators) of Federal Equipment Company (www.fedequip.com) on the USS Gerald R. Ford Aircraft Carrier.
The Ohio-based Federal Equipment Company is currently manufacturing 11 high-tech Advanced Weapons Elevators for the latest class of US Aircraft Carriers. These elevators have capacities of up to 24,000lb and speeds up to 150ft/min, as well as vastly improved payload capabilities compared to the previous weapons handling systems. Also known as CVN-78, the next-generation Aircraft Carrier Gerald R. Ford is a totally new design for the US Navy and Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding.
The GSM30 linear actuators from Exlar are used to fire locking pins in order to keep the elevators in position in every deck level. The Exlar actuators combine an inverted roller screw, an encoder/resolver feedback source and a brushless servo motor into a single compact assembly, eliminating the complexity and cost of systems engineering’s approach, as every element needed to produce linear motion have been correctly designed and matched into the actuator. All GSM Series linear actuators’ brushless servo design allows the actuators to be used in closed-loop servo systems, where electronic control of velocity and positioning is needed. In these systems, position feedback can be supplied in different forms to match customer specifications, which include encoders, resolvers or internal-mounted linear position feedback sensors.
GSM Series linear actuators’ patented design uses an inverted roller screw mechanism to automatically convert the brushless motor’s rotary motion into high thrust, high speed linear motion. This mechanism offers a lead accuracy of 25mm/300mm for high precision operation and can be supplied with no backlash.
GSM actuators are ideal for demanding applications such as automatic tool changers, wire guiding, dispensing, wafer and chip handling, testing, robot manipulation, indexing material cutting, web guidance, volumetric pumps, tension control, automated assembly, simulation testing, injection riveting and molding, as well as joining and fastening.
Everything’s OK, except the fact the island (“control tower”) is on the port side of the ship instead of the starboard, where it used to be. The same with the angled deck (“runway”) and elevators positions.