If there is one overarching trend for electric actuators, it has to be integration. That is, integrating more components such as feedback devices, controllers and drives, and functions into the actuator itself. Designers are looking for reliable actuators that can be quickly and easily installed, powered up and operational. Here’s what some top actuator manufacturers told […]
Linear Motion
Genesis Robotics premieres LiveDrive actuator at Hannover Messe 2017
Canadian manufacturer Genesis Robotics unveiled LiveDrive — the first highly-controllable direct-drive robotic actuator that is three times faster and 100 times more precise than conventional actuators — at Hannover Messe 2017 in Germany on April 24th. Robotic actuators are the physical force behind robots, and make up approximately 30 percent of the cost. For more than 50 years […]
Steinmeyer announces The Pentagon Company as new sales representative for Western U.S.
Steinmeyer has announced that The Pentagon Company will be its new representative for miniature ball screw products in USA’s western states. President of Pentagon, Donna Materna, will team-up with her sales engineers, Mike Peterseim, Al Theis and Art Kuller to represent Steinmeyer. Known as the “application detectives,” The Pentagon Company has a well-established history of […]
Technologies from Bosch Rexroth you missed at MD&M West
MD&M West is known for its unwavering usefulness to attendees and exhibitors alike, and this year’s event delivered as usual. Here’s what we saw at the Bosch Rexroth booth (within the colocated ATX West) during our visit at the show. A main focus at the Bosch Rexroth booth was connected automation technology — also called the Internet of […]
FAQ: What are low voltage piezo actuators, and where are they used?
When voltage is applied to a piezo ceramic material, the material experiences a displacement (expansion or contraction) per the inverse piezoelectric effect. The amount of displacement that results from the applied voltage depends on thickness of material. Thus, for a given displacement, a thinner material requires a smaller voltage than a thicker material. Low voltage […]
FAQ: How do I calculate the inertia of a servo-driven system?
Inertia, or more specifically, inertia ratio, is one of the most important factors in sizing a servo system. Inertia is defined an object’s resistance to change in velocity, and in servo-driven systems, it can be used as a measure of how well the motor is able to control the acceleration and deceleration of the load. […]
Custom voice-coil actuator heads to asteroid Bennu
BEI Kimco, a brand of Sensata Technologies, is a part of NASA’s first asteroid sampling mission that could revolutionize understanding of the early solar system. BEI Kimco designed a customized moving magnet voice coil actuator (VCA) to meet the harsh requirements for a spectrometer moving mirror application on the Origins-Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith […]
FAQ: What are other options for nanopositioning besides piezo actuators?
Nanopositioning—positioning on the scale of one-billionth of a meter—is a common requirement in semiconductor and medical applications, such as metrology, scanning, dispensing, and pumping. But consistently achieving nanometer-level resolution is beyond the scope of most devices that use mechanical rolling or recirculating elements. Case in point: the most common solution for nanopositioning applications is the piezo motor […]
Festo introduces productivity tools for the semiconductor industry
At Semicon West 2016 — July 12-14 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco at the Festo Semicon Booth #1029 — Festo unveils for the semiconductor electronics and assembly industry both tools and products that lower engineering overhead and bring machines to market faster. Servo kit for electric press-fitting applications The new servo press solution is the latest […]
New actuator updates from linearmotiontips.com
If you’re looking for information on electric actuators, then check out the latest from motioncontroltips.com Design World sister site linearmotiontips.com. This website details the specification and use of various linear-motion guides and drives — including mechanical rotary-to-linear converters such as lead screws and ballscrews — as well as actuators and even fully integrated stages, gantries, and Cartesian robots. The following is […]
