Product category:
Stepper and Servo Drives, Motors, Controls
News Release from: Aerotech | Subject: ALS1000 linear positioning stage
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 01 February 2006
Micron level accuracy from stage
Linear positioning stage uses direct-drive brushless servos and linear motion guide bearings to provide micron level accuracy and repeatability with a 50kg load and a travel range up to 450mm.
Aerotech's ALS1000 linear positioning stage has direct-drive brushless servo technology and long-life linear motion guide bearings to provide micron level accuracy and repeatability with a 50kg load rating and a travel range up to 450mm The stage is fully sealed for harsh manufacturing environments and an internal and fully protected, two-axis cable management system routes motor power and feedback signals to a central connection point for straightforward x-y table installation
It is suitable for high-accuracy and high-throughput industrial automation applications such as laser machining, rapid prototyping and EDM where fast and precise positioning is usually performed within fairly hostile environments.
The stage is driven by the firm's BLMC series cog-free brushless linear servomotor that provides speed and position control for tightly synchronised applications such as velocity profiling or multi-axis contouring.
With its non-magnetic forcer, zero backlash and zero wind-up, the friction free BLMC drive provides system response and in-position stability.
Non-contact linear encoders provide feedback with positioning resolution from 0.005 to 1.0um depending on the choice of line driver or amplified sinewave output.
With five standard travel ranges of 100, 150, 200, 300 and 450mm, it can reach a maximum speed of 750mm/s with acceleration to 2g (20m/s2) for 1.0um resolution stages.
Linear accuracy ranges from +/-4.0um for the 100mm travel option to +/-18.0um for the 450mm unit.
An optional accuracy of +/-1.0um across all travel ranges can be supplied upon request with Aerotech's Halar option.
Halar stages are pre-calibrated for accuracy and repeatability against a laser interferometer reference and the resulting error map information is added to the motion control system.
Guaranteed specifications for straightness and flatness are within 3.0um per 25mm of travel and angular pitch and yaw deviation are within comparable tolerances.
The stage uses precision linear motion guide bearings with wiper seals and grease fittings to provide stiffness for a central horizontal loading of 50kg with a 25kg side loading capability.
The hard top design uses an aluminium plate and a side seal arrangement that resists swarf and debris from contaminating the inside of the stage.
This design has proven more effective than traditional top seal linear stage designs that typically have plastic or fabric bellows and are generally not adequate to give full protection in laser machining environments.
The protection plate and tabletop have a Teflon impregnated hardcoat with a scratch-resistant Rockwell 62 hardness finish that provides durability and protection.
For more extreme environments, an optional air-purge fitting is available that allows clean air to pressurise internally the stage (or x-y configuration) and prevent debris from entering the stage.
The ALS1000 can be supplied with or without a tabletop and further options include metric or imperial mounting hole patterns and alternative stage finishes including electroless nickel plating for medical applications or as a protective coating for ESD machining.
For x-y-z or x-y-z-theta applications, an external cable management system is available to cater for power and feedback requirements for the z and theta axes.
External cable management can also be provided on the base axis of x-y configurations if required. Request a free brochure from Aerotech ...
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