Motion Control

Products: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Rotary Actuator

The Hydraulic Unibody (HUB) Series rotary actuator from Parker Hannifin Corp. (Cleveland, OH) is built with a hard-coat anodized housing and hardened alloy steel pinion and racks for applications exposed to harsh weather...

Products: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Drive Starters

NORD Gear Corporation USA (Waunakee, WI) introduced the SK135E/SK175E soft start drives designed for use in a distributed control system. They can be mounted directly on the motor or near the motor. The starters regulate the...

Products: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Brushless Motors

maxon motor (Fall River, MA) offers ECX high-speed brushless micro motors in diameters of 8, 16, and 19 mm achieving speeds of up to 120,000 rpm. They are available with different power stages and in standard or...

Products: Robotics, Automation & Control

Electronically Commutated Motors

EC Fans & Drives, a division of Epec Engineered Technologies (New Bedford, MA), announced EConomy and EXRi50 electronically commutated motors. The EConomy features a slim profile that enables use in...

Products: Motion Control

Angle Sensors

Novotechnik, U.S. (Southborough, MA) introduced the RSC3200 angle sensors that feature shaft connectivity options and provide absolute rotary position measurement. Analog outputs are 0.25 to 4.75V or 0.5 to 4.5V. Built-in...

Products: Motion Control

Brush DC Motors

Portescap (West Chester, PA) introduced the Athlonix™ 22DCP brush DC motors available in a 22-mm diameter. They feature a coreless design with a self-supporting coil and magnetic circuit, and are available in two...

Products: Robotics, Automation & Control

Linear Actuator

The Servo Cylinder from Ultra Motion (Cutchogue, NY) is a compact brushless DC linear actuator with Phase Index™ absolute position feedback. The integrated Phase Index sensor is digital, high-resolution, and non-contacting...

Products: Manufacturing & Prototyping

Brushless Torque Motors

Electromate (Greenville, DE) offers QTR Series compact torque motors from Tecnotion that can be integrated directly into a machine structure, with an open inner diameter that enables wire and cable feedthrough. The...

INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control

New Flow Battery Offers Lower-Cost Energy Storage

A new flow battery technology is projected to cost 60 percent less than today's standard flow batteries. The lower cost is due to the battery's active materials being inexpensive organic...

INSIDER: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

New Ways to Construct Contactless Magnetic Gears

Magnetic gears transmit rotary motion like mechanical gears but instead of teeth they use magnetic attraction and repulsion between rotating magnets. Magnetic gears have several advantages...

INSIDER: Robotics, Automation & Control

Wall-Climbing Drone Flies and Sticks to Target

Researchers have developed the CAROS (Climbing Aerial RObot System) wall-climbing robot with higher mobility than existing wall-climbing robots because it can fly. It also can restore its...

INSIDER: Mechanical & Fluid Systems

High-Precision Robot Installs Webb Telescope Mirrors

The James Webb Space Telescope team is installing telescope mirror segments using a high-precision robotic arm. To precisely install the segments, the robotic arm can move in six...

INSIDER: Electronics & Computers

Soft Electronics Change the Way Robot Fingers Move

A new soft robotic gripper made out of rubber and stretchable electrodes can bend and pick up delicate objects like eggs and paper. It uses electroadhesion – flexible electrode flaps that...

INSIDER: Test & Measurement

Algorithm Analyzes Vibrations to Monitor Machinery Health

An artificial intelligence algorithm was developed that greatly increases accuracy in diagnosing the health of complex mechanical systems. Typical vibration analysis searches for...

Articles: Motion Control

Optimizing Drive Systems for Energy Savings

Energy savings are an extremely important topic in virtually every segment of industry today. In general, the largest consumer of power in a converting line or machine is the drive system. As...

Application Briefs: Robotics, Automation & Control

Automation System Retrofit Transforms 175-Ton Hydraulic Forming Press

Southern Manufacturing Group (SMG) of Morrison, TN, makes automotive components and industrial valves. In 2012, the automation system for its 175-ton hydraulic forming...

Products: Robotics, Automation & Control

Severe-Environment Motors

Marathon Motors (Wausau, WI) introduced totally enclosed air-over (TEAO) cooling tower motors with Bearing Current Protection (BCP) using AEGIS® Shaft Grounding Rings. The NEMA Premium Severe-Duty motors feature...

Products: Robotics, Automation & Control

High-Torque Drives

Schneider Electric Motion USA (Marlborough, CT) offers Lexium MDrive NEMA size 23 drives with high-torque stepper motors as an alternative to standard motors. Closed loop performance of the drives eliminates possible motor...

Products: Robotics, Automation & Control

Rotary Tables

EXSYS Tool (San Antonio, FL) offers pL LEHMANN 500 series ultra-high-precision rotary tables. The modular, multi-axis rotary tables allow users to upgrade a vertical machining center without incurring the expense of a new...

Products: Robotics, Automation & Control

Actuator Control

The DCH Series actuator control from American Control Electronics (South Beloit, IL) combines an AC-to-DC switching power supply with a regenerative PWM drive to create an all-in-one solution. The control is suited for...

Products: Motion Control

Motor Controllers

PITTMAN® Motors, a business unit of AMETEK Precision Motion Control (Harleysville, PA), announced IDEATM PBL4850E programmable 3-phase brushless motor controllers that let users create distributed standalone motion...

Products: Motion Control

Magnetic Encoder

The Model 30M low-profile, 30-mm-diameter magnetic encoder module from Encoder Products (Sagle, ID) provides incremental feedback by means of advanced sensing and signal processing technology. It combines a Hall-effect...

Products: Motion Control

Roller Chain

U.S. Tsubaki Power Transmission (Wheeling, IL) introduced Titan Series roller chain for high-speed and harsh environments. The ANSI chain utilizes a “Titan specific” chain construction that includes coated pins and pin...

Products: Motion Control

Spindle Gear

maxon precision motors (Fall River, MA) announced the GP 6 S spindle for a variety of linear drive solutions. The maximum feed velocity is 15 mm/s, at a force of 10 N. Integrated ball bearings ensure that the drive stands up to...

Products: Robotics, Automation & Control

Z-Theta System

Catalyst Motion Group™, a Haydon Kerk Motion System integrator (Waterbury, CT), offers a Z-Theta system capability that provides a compact package to achieve a rotary axis and a linear axis in a single unit. When operated in...

Products: Motion Control

Motion Controller

Soft Servo Systems (Waltham, MA) offers the WMX general motion controller that simultaneously controls up to 64 axes and 64 channels with control functions on the EtherCAT platform. It can run as an EtherCAT master on a...

Products: Motion Control

Rail Brakes

Profile Guide rail brakes from Nexen Group (Vadnais Heights, MN) are available in a range of sizes from 15 to 45, and provide engagement at 0.049 to 0.080 seconds. They provide static holding force to 2,600 N (585 lbs.), and can...

Products: Aerospace

Delta Robot and Controller

The RCP-DELTA robot and control system from Aerotech (Piitsburgh, PA) is available in four models that support payloads up to 3 kg, with X/Y operating ranges of 500/800/1100/1300 mm, and an optional continuous...

Products: Robotics, Automation & Control

Slide System

Velmex (Bloomfield, NY) offers the Parallel-Coupled BiSlide System for long traverses and larger loads. The system features two identical BiSlide assemblies coupled with a timing belt to drive synchronous operation. It can...