Actuators help improve driver safety

The SMAC Moving Coil Actuator incorporates the Softland function to control speed and positional feedback and find surfaces or positions in space without damaging the component or SMAC actuator.

SMAC Moving Coil Actuators (MCA) are being used by a major international parts supplier to the automotive industry for measuring and testing safety critical air bag components.

With 100% parts testing of all components now a prerequisite within the automotive industry SMAC's compact and integrated LXY system has now become a defacto standard where a cost-effective, reliable and precise solution is required.

SMAC has produced a system where previously lasers and vision systems have failed.

The fully automated solution which was originally conducted by human hand is now used to 100% measure and test inline production of air bag components which require a total of nine independent checks, two checks externally on the component and seven checks internally within the part.

The cycle time from start to finish for each component is less than 2.5 seconds.

The system runs 24/7 and enables 100% data feedback and verification of each individual test on each individual part.

The SMAC Moving Coil Actuator incorporates the Softland function to control speed and positional feedback and find surfaces or positions in space without damaging the component or SMAC actuator.

This facility is used in step 1 of the cycle by gently touching down with a controlled force on the component to be checked and therefore creating a datum point and storing it in a register memory.

The cycle then continues and measures the position and width of a machined retaining groove and also checks for chips, swarf and other debris in the retaining groove that would cause potential failure of the air bag to activate when required.

This is done with a repeatability of +/- 2 encoder counts ensuring an exceptional degree of accuracy.

The bore depth of the component is then measured.

The distance to the bottom of the bore is now captured and compared to the previously stored datum point.

From this the controller then accurately calculates the actual bore depth and measures it against that required.

The SMAC system automatically checks the bore diameter, bore depth, retaining groove width and diameter, parameters with any problems or discrepancies on the component being flagged up and reported.

This SMAC solution which was highly cost efficient has now been rolled out in a number of sister manufacturing plants across the world.

SMAC devices can and are used in machine shop floor environment, offering a solution that can hold up well to the environmental elements commonly present on a machine shop floor.

The SMAC actuators can be set up in a manner that will allow for them to be easily calibrated and correlated to proven manual or CMM inspection methods.

All SMAC controllers allow for output of variable data in a variety of formats that the user can configure in their program.

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