Maxon, NI Partner in Robotics Field

Maxon Precision Motors (Fall River, Mass.) is partnering with National Instruments (Austin, Tex.) in an initiative to highlight mutual areas of interest in the field of robotics. An informal relationship between the two companies was initiated as early as 2006, with the inclusion of NI LabVIEW virtual intstruments in Maxon’s EPOS family of digital... [Read more]

DC Tachometer Generators Feature Low Ripple

Greenville, Del. – Servo2Go has just added a new high performance DC Tachometer Generator to its broad range of analog feedback devices and sensors. Manufactured by Servo-Tek Products Company Inc., the CS-7514F-51C tachometer features a low ripple of 1.5% peak-to-peak with a 72kHz filter, linearity of 0.1% and a standard 3V/1,000 RPM with other voltages... [Read more]

Next-generation ABB Industrial Drive Module Expands to 600 HP

New Berlin, Wis. – ABB’s new drive module ACS850 is now available and UL listed up to 600 HP. The ACS850 features on-board safe-torque-off, a removable memory block, intelligent user interface with a series of assistant wizards, a built-in energy saving calculator, and modular hardware and software. It also includes an advanced adaptation of ABB’s... [Read more]

Ceramic Linear Piezo Motor from Physik Instrumente

Auburn, Mass. – PI (Physik Instrumente) introduces the new N-216 NEXLINE® high-load piezo linear motors. These highly precise nanopositioning actuators provide travel ranges to 20mm with a resolution of 0.03nm, and push/pull forces to 600N (130lbs) and holding forces to 800N (177lbs). The piezoceramic clamping and shear elements act directly on a... [Read more]

XD-Series Indexer Servo Drives from ORMEC

Rochester, NY – ORMEC announces its new XD-Series, a family of Indexer Servo Drives, providing high-reliability motion control capabilities for even the most challenging applications. The XD-Series allows programming of 32 individual motion profiles, which can be mapped to I/O points, 1 or 2 functions per point, initiated via Modbus/TCP, and chained... [Read more]

Hard-Cover, Side-Sealed Linear Stages from Aerotech

Pittsburgh, Pa. – Aerotech’s PRO Series are low cost, side seal, hard cover, ball-screw-driven linear stages available in 68 standard models with travels from 50 to 1500mm. The PRO Series features a hard-cover design for protection from debris, while side-seals keep dirt and particulates out of the stage and protect the bearing surfaces from contamination.... [Read more]

Ultra Narrow Precision Linear Stage from Steinmeyer

Burlington, Mass. – The new PA 30×40-SM01 is a single-axis, precision linear stage from Steinmeyer that is ideal for applications needing an extremely narrow positioning table. The compact, fully enclosed stage is 30mm wide and 40mm high and available in travel ranges from 25 to 150mm. Positioning repeatability is 1 micron, maximum speed... [Read more]

Low-friction Gearbox for Higher Efficiencies

Bartlett, Ill. – Wittenstein announces a new version of its alpha SP+ HIGH SPEED gearbox, the L-Version. The new version features high maximum and nominal output speed, reduced nominal torque, lower heat buildup, lower no-load running torque and higher efficiency. This low-friction gearbox is available initially for the HIGH SPEED versions of... [Read more]

Encoder delivers higher resolution for better speed control

“If you want to control the speed of a particular move,” noted Kevin Kaufenberg, product manager for HEIDENHAIN Corporation’s semiconductor, metrology, and medical markets, “the more counts an encoder can output per given period of time, the better the speed control will be. So having a very fine resolution from the encoder provides more counts... [Read more]

CAN in Automation 402-CANopen Profiles Extended to OEM Drives

Covina, Ca. – QuickSilver Controls, Inc. has added CANopen® DSP 402 (CiA® DSP 402 v3.0) to its OEM line of controllers/drivers for NEMA 11, 17 and 23 frame brushless servo motors, further extending the capabilities by adding encoder following and hard-stop homing capabilities as a manufacturer extension to the specification. This adds the QCI-D2-MG-C... [Read more]