Product category:
Rotary Position, Tilt and Angular Sensors
News Release from: Tecan | Subject: Bespoke optical encoders
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 02 July 2003
Cost-effective encoders satisfy
demanding roles
Cost-effective customised optical encoders for virtually any measurement, control or positioning system are now being manufactured to the highest levels of accuracy and performance by Tecan.
Cost-effective customised optical encoders for virtually any measurement, control or positioning system are now being manufactured to the highest levels of accuracy and performance by Tecan Various in-house manufacturing techniques are employed by the company to produce the most appropriate encoder for a given requirement
Photochemical machining (PCM), for example will produce excellent results for a wide range of applications, typically with accuracies of +/-10% the thickness of the metal used - from 1.5 down to 0.01mm.
In cases requiring even greater accuracy, electroforming manufacturing techniques are used, a typical tolerance here being +/-8um, in some cases ultra-high tolerances of +/-2um or less can be achieved.
Single-thickness disks and bilevel disks can also be produced readily, to suit varying optical and mechanical performance needs.
A recently cited bilevel encoder case study looks at Banbury, Oxfordshire based, TymeSync Controls, a company which designs and manufactures highly specialised torque transducer systems.
Liasing with Tecan engineers the company realised that a demanding encoder requirement, for a torque transducer in a sophisticated aerospace project, could be cost-effectively satisfied, while ensuring optimum optomechanical performance.
Two side-by-side encoder discs are used in the torque transducer application which is part of a development and analysis system used to measure torque in aircraft flap actuators and other applications where torque measurement is required.
Critical elements in the design and production of the encoder disc were the need to maintain mechanical strength under varying torque, speed and temperature conditions while ensuring fine optical resolution through high-accuracy apertures.
The result is a single rigid electroformed part, with localised thickness variations to suit both optical and mechanical requirements.
As opposed to traditional photo film techniques, Tecan employed specialised high-resolution chrome-on-glass tooling to achieve optical aperture tolerances of +/-1.6um.
Encoder specifiers require cost-effective accuracy, says Tecan, which is increasingly winning business from traditional manufacturers due to its fast response capability and high-accuracy manufacturing techniques.
In addition to higher resolution optical bars and slots, the inside diameter accuracy of the prop shaft hole can be significantly improved.
The company offers a bespoke service for the supply of burr- and stress-free disks and similar components - including simple or complex designs for low, medium or high-volume requirements.
Subject to acceptance, a bespoke rapid prototype service guarantees despatch of first samples within five working days.
In addition to rapid delivery of the first low-volume parts, the service has other benefits.
For example, once a part is adopted, down-the-line production speeds and costs are reduced because the tooling is already in place.
Modifications can be cost-effectively incorporated within the company's powerful CAD system, ensuring any 'knock-on' tooling costs are also minimised.
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