One of our clients needed a quick turn custom gantry robot. Here is what we were able to come up with http://www.youtube.com/user/ASautomation
Machine Design article on New Way air bearings
Machine Design has an article on modular rotary air bearings, such as those manufactured by New Way. From the article:
Radial air-bearing modules do not constrain rotary motion using a 360° housing as is the case with rolling-element bearings. Instead they are positioned in combinations of three or four segments to support a rotor over just a small percentage of its circumference….
Radial air bearings can handle extremely high speeds thanks to their lack of friction. A general rule of thumb is that an air bearing will have only 10% of the load capacity of similar-sized rolling-element bearing but will have 10 times the speed capability and 100 times less friction….
Typically, radial rolling-element bearings have an inner and outer race that goes 360° around the rotating body. These races and the rolling elements they contain must be fit with a high degree of precision. The ability to manufacture parts with this type of precision has been the exclusive domain of bearing manufacturers.
Radial air bearings built as modules change this paradigm dramatically. Modular-radial air bearings support the rotor from a small percentage of the circumference. So the relative size between the rotor and the radius on the bearing is not critical. This means you can buy the radial air bearings and machine races on the rotor yourself, if need be….
Read the full article here: http://machinedesign.com/article/modular-air-bearings-for-motion-control-0721
Galil powers CNC waterjet carpet cutter
There are a couple of articles in Machine Design and Control Engineering on a company using Galil’s DMC-21×3 series of motion controllers to control a five-axis waterjet cutter for carpet and astroturf materials. The machine is unique because it allows bevel cuts with angles up to 45°.
The Galil DMC-2153 controller takes commands from a CNC front-end running on a PC and handles tracing out the pattern with an XY gantry, water jet height, keeping the water stream tangent to the cut. The Galil controller provides smooth motion by applying linear and circular interpolation to a stream of commands sent every 4 ms by the PC.
Linear arc motors
This is a great article from Applimotion on linear arc motors. Linear arc motors are exactly what the name sounds like: linear motors shaped into an arc to provide rotational motion. They can provide a great replacement for rotary rack and pinion drives as they require less maintenance, have fewer parts, and are very quiet. That last point is a great plus for medical applications, where low noise is important for patient comfort.
