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MD&M West (ATX West) 2018 — First day of motion technologies

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One full day down, and MD&M West and the collocated ATX — also known as the Pacific Design & Manufacturing Show — are in full swing in Anaheim. New motion-control and power-transmission products and applications abound — with a lot of cross-pollination to other industries from the medical-device and semiconductor-manufacturing industries.

Here’s just a smattering of what we saw right out of the gate. Check out linearmotiontips.com and therobotreport.com as well for more over the next couple days and weeks on what we’re seeing at MD&M and ATX West 2018.

Altech Corp. — MD&M West Booth 3535 for power supplies and connectivity solutions

This was the first stop at the show … and from Altech we’re seeing specialty pin connectors, all-in-one connectivity solutions, pre-assembled DIN assemblies, and electrical safety products — which reflects a larger narrative in industry of increased use of turnkey I/O and power connections (and simplicity in purchasing to match).

Advanced Motion Controls — MD&M West Booth 4160

Servodrives are front and center at this booth. However, the company also has on hand DigiFlex servodrives … which (as we’ve profiled in editorial) work as standalone drives or are controllable over networks. The former allows ±10V analog commands as well as PWM and direction (and step and direction) commands.

Another offering from the company showing at ATX is a DigiFlex drive with a 100B080 power level and Safe Torque Off (STO) functionality standard. The new iteration is suitable for AGVs and mobile robotics. Expect more in a followup blog tomorrow.

AllMotion — MD&M West Booth 4559 for small stepper and servo offerings

AllMotion makes stepper drives and controllers as well as servo-system products. Their flagship $500 EZQuadServo controller is currently at the booth. along with other motor controllers … as well and AllMotion EZStepper and EZServo motor drivers.

Bosch Rexroth — MD&M West Booth 4201 — IoT (I4.0) and connected conveying

Check out this post on the Bosch Rexroth Active Mover transfer system on display at the show and expect more shortly.

Canon USA — MD&M West Booth 408 — Not just office machines … motion-control offerings too

Beyond consumer products such as cameras, copiers, and printers, Canon USA sells motion control products as well as complete mechatronic builds for medical devices, diagnostic equipment, and robotics. This was news to us — so if’s news to you as well, here’s a deep link to their site dedicated to motion-control offerings. We’re joining our colleague Mike Francesconi in meeting with Canon USA and will post updates here.

CGI — MD&M West Booth 2395 for tiny precision gear products

Relevant to the medical-device market (and other industries as well) are CGI Motion’s custom gear designs for instrument-grade designs. The team is showing a couple samples of autoclavable and inline or right-angle micro gearboxes they’ve designed for OEM applications.

Besides surgical and healthcare motion designs — as in in hollow-shaft variations for cannula assemblies, for example — the gearboxes are suitable for unique aerospace and defense applications too. Current ratios possible are from 2.5:1 while sizes start from 12 mm.

Related post from Design World: Medical Device Manufacturing with Herrmann Ultrasonics’ HiQ DIALOG

Cymatix — MD&M West Booth 3090 — Integration of motion systems

We’d not heard of this high-tech distributor and integrator Cymatix, though they serve the motion-control industrial market. We’re excited to get more from them (hopefully for our upcoming 2018 Motion Trends issue of Design World) on services for which they’re seeing more demand — especially relating to stepper and servomotor-driven designs and gearsets, encoders, and drives and amplifiers.

MW Industries — MD&M West Booth 1455 — Advanced bellows, springs, and engineered PT components

Our esteemed colleague Courtney Seel made this booth visit to get a look at familiar and brand-new technologies under the various divisions and brands that have come together under the MW Industries house — including the Servometer, Helical, Bellowstech, and Economy Spring brands. The big news from MW Industries continues to be its structuring to serve focused industry segments with target product suites. Here are videos from sister MW Industries brands Accurate Screw Machine (ASM) and Century Spring Corp. also at the show.


Rolling Motion Industries — MD&M West Booth 4381

This is a fascinating technology that we heard about from longtime friend Chris Popp. Rolling Motion Industries makes a fixed-ratio traction drive that outperforms traditional gear reducers in some applications. We’re headed to the booth on Thursday, so will post a deeper dive on the technology when we get it … but in the meantime, visit www.rmidrive.com and see John Pawloski at the show if this technology is of interest.

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