Inexpensive Methods to Measure the Performance Characteristics of a Linear Motion Device

Once you've determined the requirements of your linear motion application, how can you qualify a linear motion product to ensure it meets your application's needs? Manufacturer's specs are often vague and/or incomplete. The only sure way is to test the product yourself. However, simply testing a product in the final application is usually not possible at such an early stage in the design process. This article will describe a series of tests that can be performed by the average user with little experience and without sophisticated measuring instruments to quickly determine the most important performance characteristics of linear motion systems.