AutomationSolutions often has to handle projects requiring high power and low voltage. For example, the motors that drive the wheels on mobile robots need a lot of current to generate high torque, but the voltage available from the robot’s batteries is often just 12 VDC. AMC’s AZ series of board-mount servo drives is expanding to meet exactly these kinds of needs.
 The AZ series is designed to drive brushed and brushless servo motors. To increase system reliability and to reduce cabling costs, the drive is designed for direct integration into your PCB. The drive interfaces with digital controllers that have analog +/-10V output. It requires only a single unregulated isolated DC power supply, and is fully RoHS (Reduction of Hazardous Substances) compliant.
The drive is available with peak current capability up to 40 A and continuous current up to 20 A. It supports voltages from 10 to 80 VDC. Options are available for torque control and velocity control with hall or encoder feedback.
The July 2009 issue of B&R’s automotion magazine is available here. Automotion always has lots of great stories on B&R’s latest applications. In this quarter’s issue:
- Standardization of network technologies
- Shrimp: more popular than ever
- Cutting edge computing
- Entering new markets with Fortuna
- Frequency inverters for all performance ranges
- One tool maximum
- Welding with reduced power consumption
- Molded into shape
- Overhead lifting solutions
- Intel® Atom™ processors for increased cost-effectiveness
- Increased efficiency with integrated safety technology
- Integrated safety doesn’t need to be expensive
- Outstanding packaging
- CNC with the highest precision
- From the mountain to your roads and tables
- Cool solutions
- All-terrain concrete mixers
- Taking a powerful position
- Innovative sputter process
- Grabbing the bottle by the neck
- Straight from the lab to the plant through simulation
- Reel changes with real advantages
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
 The July issue of Galil’s ServoTrends newsletter is available. You can download the PDF version here. Or, you can read the following articles online:
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.
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.
Read the article here.
 B&R’s X20 system is a flexible slice-based I/O system. It supports a number of fieldbus standards, including CANopen, Ethernet Powerlink, Profibus, Modbus/TCP, and others. The new fiber-optic modules are great for widely distributed systems, as they allow for distances of up to 2000 m between nodes. The use of fiber optics is also perfect for machines such as ion implanters that require complete electrical isolation of high voltage sections of the machine.
Read the press release here.
Read more about the X20 system.
We are very excited to announce AutomationSolutions’s expansion into the Southeastern United States. In January 2008, we acquired Integrated Motion, a premiere machine and motion control distributor with operations in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland.
The merger will allow AutomationSolutions to provide you with a wider and deeper pool of application expertise. We now have 30 degreed engineers covering the east coast from South Carolina to Maine, all ready to deliver the most compelling motion and machine control solutions to our customers.
We will continue to use the Integrated Motion brand in the Southeast. The combined company will draw on senior management talent from both organizations, so there will be management continuity in key roles:
- Wayne Ferrari will be Chief Executive Officer
- Richard Manders will be President of Northeast Operations
- Charles Williams will be President of Southeast Operations
We are most of the way through bringing Integrated Motion into the AutomationSolutions family. Our customers in the Northeast will continue to deal with the same engineers. Orders will continue to be processed in our customer service center in Hartford, CT. The integration process has been very easy because Integrated Motion lives and breathes the same values of teamwork, customer focus, and innovation that we treasure at AutomationSolutions.
 Galil’s new RIO-471×0 series are intelligent input and output controllers designed for Ethernet. The controllers take advantage of the industry standard Modbus protocol to communicate with multiple devices including PLCs and Galil’s Ethernet motion controllers. Its fast RISC processor allows programming with Galil’s easy-to-use, two-letter command language or Galil’s ladder language software.
Each compact RIO-471×0 is self contained with numerous analog and digital I/O points. Multiple RIO-471×0 units can be distributed on an Ethernet network, allowing I/O expansion.
The RIO-471×0 is fully programmable, making it much more than a remote I/O slave. With concurrent execution of up to four application programs, closed-loop PID control of analog process control loops, and the capability to control other devices as a Modbus master, the RIO-471×0 series brings Galil’s expertise in rapid and cost-effective development of motion control systems to the machine control world.
Standard features include:
- 10/100 Base-T Ethernet port
- RS232 port configurable for 115 or 19.2 kbaud
- 8 analog inputs and 8 analog outputs
- 16 optically isolated inputs
- 8 high-power, isolated outputs rated at 500 mA per output
- 8 isolated outputs rated at 25 mA max per output
- 2 analog process control loops controlled by Galil PID filter
- Concurrent execution of up to four application programs
- LED indicators for all digital I/O points
- Easy-to-use, 2-letter Galil programming language
Apex Dynamics has released the new Precision Planetary PE series, bringing their patented one-piece shaft carrier to the low cost end of the gearbox market. The PE series is a direct replacement for cylindrical style gearheads in the market today such as the Alpha LP Series. The Apex PE achieves increased radial and axial loading capacity through its oversized ball bearing straddle mount. The PE’s coated steel output housing along with 100% guaranteed delivery creates a perfect low cost servo grade gearbox for every application.
 The PE series uses fully supported planet gearing and thicker planet gears to increase the tooth-to-tooth contact ratio, resulting in torque capacities over 30% higher than other standard spur gearing geometry. The gearing is optimized and produces smooth and quiet operation at extreme speeds. At up to 8000 RPM input speed, noise is held under 68 dB while backlash is less than 6 arc-min.
The product is offered in 5 sizes from 50 mm to 155 mm and is equipped with single stage ratios of 3,4,5,7, and 10:1 along with 9 more double stage ratios of from 15:1 to 100:1. Other options in the PE series are Square Metric (PB) and English Nema (PN), all of which are available from stock.
The PE series gearboxes are covered by Apex’s industry leading 2-year tip to toe warranty. Delivery is guaranteed within two weeks or the gearboxes are free.
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