Aerotech (www.aerotech.com) has unveiled its new ASRT series rotary stages with direct-drive brushless servo motor technology for precise zero backlash positioning in an IP66 sealed design. This guarantees thorough operation in environments where liquid, dust and dirt are unavoidable.

The ASRT series is aimed at applications which involve dust or mist spray, washdown, or where coolants must be utilized as part of a machining process. It is available in three nominal widths of 300mm, 245mm and 185mm in a dual bearing design, which can support axial loads of up to 175kg while maintaining a tilt error motion of less than three arc-sec.

The new ASRT series offers high throughput performance and exceptional accuracy that is synonymous with precision mechanics from Aerotech with the further benefit of suitability for unfavorable and harsh environments.

A low friction seal found between the rotating tabletop and fixed base minimizes hysteresis due to direction reversal, allowing high speed performance and precise angular positioning.

A bi-directional repeatability of less than one arc-sec is specified for the optical encoder feedback version, while a magnetic encoder version found on the smaller stages provides less than 10 arc-sec.

The use of non-contacting encoder and motor technologies particularly suits applications with frequent direction changes such as range tracking and sensor test equipment and helps extend life span with low maintenance scheduling.

As with almost all of the positioning mechanics range from Aerotech, both HALAR certified and standard accuracy options are available for better accuracy to within two arc-sec for the optical encoder version, with a 0.018-arc-sec positioning resolution for the biggest 300mm width stage.

Controller options for the ASRT series include the A3200 Digital Automation Platform, a Windows based software controller for up to 32 axes of deterministic and fully synchronized high performance machine and motion control, complete with Firewire interfaced servo drives and optional HMI, programmable logic controller (PLC) and vision control modules.