Actuators come with absolute position feedback
A
Tolomatic product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
May 19, 2005
Tol-O-Matic reckons its new Absolute Position Feedback (APF) technology is the first fully integrated linear actuator sensor that eliminates the need for homing routines.
Tol-O-Matic reckons its new Absolute Position Feedback (APF) technology is the first fully integrated linear actuator sensor that eliminates the need for homing routines.
APF-equipped Tol-O-Matic actuators provide analogue feedback to the controller or PLC to determine actual load position.
Work point variances can also be accommodated throughout the cycle, eliminating stoppage for manual setups.
Systems with APF provide position feedback as soon as power is applied, allowing immediate resumption from shutdowns, resets and power losses.
The APF option is currently available for Tol-O-Matic BC3 pneumatic and B3S electric series actuators, and unlike fixed length sensors, can be ordered in incremental stroke lengths from 2 to 156in.
"APF is fully integrated within the actuator body, eliminating the need for complex mounting and also reducing the chance of damage to the transducer", said Michael Dornfeld, Tol-O-Matic Project Engineer.
"The technology utilises a noncontact, linear displacement transducer that offers high life expectancy, high speed, high linearity and repeatability compared with conventional linear potentiometers".
Dornfeld added that because the APF magnetostrictive transducer measures position directly, effects of screw/nut backlash can be eliminated from position feedback information.
In pneumatic applications using BC3-series actuators, APF can eliminate the need for hard-wired event triggers, and events can be easily programmed to a PLC without having to manually add or adjust switches.
An analogue signal of 0 to +10 or -10 to +10V DC can be selected (based on control device) to make full use of the controller's analogue to digital conversion capabilities.
Tol-O-Matic's APF technology opens the door to greater productivity in a number of applications that demand load position location at operation start-up, or high performance/high volume production, including valve positioning, winding, measurement, stacking, inspection machinery, x-y positioning setup, load sensing and assembly machinery.
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