NORD’s redesigned NEMA and IEC adapters are made of cast-iron and consist of a single casting that eliminates the need for adapter plates. This manufacturing process reduces the total number of parts that need to be stocked, resulting in a lower sell price and providing better overall value. The improved housing also results in a significant reduction in heat generation, nearly -20 K less temperature rise compared to the legacy version. The adapters come standard with a fail-safe ROTEX coupling and are designed for easy integration of backstops and speed sensors to meet application needs. To support commissioning and service, an inspection cover was added for quick feedback on engagement and spider condition. Permalubricators and grease drain cups will no longer be needed as the new adapters come prepared with lifetime grease as well as provisions for re-greasing if necessary, adding to the low maintenance advantages these NEMA and IEC adapters provide.
www.nord.com
IKO
Introduces New Crossed Roller Bearing
IKO International has unveiled its newest crossed roller bearing — the CRBT105A. This ultra-small, ultra-thin unit is designed to provide exceptional rigidity for space-constrained automated machine designs.
The CRBT105A features a 10 millimeter bore diameter, 21 millimeter outside diameter and a narrow width of 5 millimeters. Despite its compact size, the CRBT105A offers rigidity up to four times greater than doublerow angular contact ball-type bearings. This combination of small size and high rigidity makes the CRBT105A suitable for robots with articulating arms as well as compact surveillance cameras.
With rollers alternately crossed at right angles to each other between inner and outer rings, the CRBT105A produces a greater contact surface to allow the bearing to handle heavy or complex loads from any direction simultaneously. This orthogonal roller arrangement results in a bearing that occupies just half the sectional area of rear-mounted, 45-degree contact angle single-row roller or ball-type bearings.
The CRBT105A also features:
- Separators between cylindrical rollers to provide smooth rotation.
- Dynamic load rating of 1,120N and static load rating of 811N.
- Small coefficient of friction for high-speed rotation.
- Lightweight design.
Crossed Roller Bearings are advanced products that are ideal for space-constrained automated machine designs. In addition to the ultra-small, ultra-thin CRBT105A, IKO also offers a wide range of rigid, compact crossed roller bearings that are well-suited for machine tools, industrial robots, medical equipment, and other precision applications.
www.ikont.com
ETEL
Offers Short Stroke Actuators for Semiconductor Manufacturing
ETEL introduces two new short stroke actuators specifically for use as a unique solution for “Test and Scan” turret handlers in semiconductor manufacturing. Available in North America through parent company Heidenhain, the TUCANA ST and the AQUARIUS ST are an extension of its Z line of actuators, providing users a higher control of force repeatability and better throughput during back-end semiconductor processing, thus reducing the final cost of machine ownership.
In the back-end semiconductor applications, short move and settle times as well as smooth force limitation at low force levels are key parameters that can now be fulfilled with less compromise using these new actuators. The TUCANA ST and AQUARIUS ST have been mechanically optimized with fully symmetrical and balanced design to guarantee long-term friction behavior along with avoiding unwanted move and settle variations. Both these actuators can then cope with smaller nominal forces down to 0.5 N, improve force accuracy, drastically drop the force overshoot and increase the acceleration.
The semiconductor manufacturing processes that could commonly benefit from these new ETEL ST actuators are back-end “Final Test” turret handler applications which include device handling processes which pick up, transfer, test, inspect, mark and/or place key components.
Key specifications of the TUCANA ST and AQUARIUS ST include a total stroke of up to 10 mm, speeds up to 1 m/s, acceleration up to 40 G, and a move & settle time of 2.8 mm within ±10 µm in 6.7 ms. The TUCANA ST has a peak force of 68.4 N along with a continuous force of 12.1 N. The AQUARIUS ST has a peak force of 214 N, along with a continuous force of 31.4 N.
www.heidenhain.us
PBC Linear
Expands Factory of the Future Program with Applied Cobotics
PBC Linear continues to elevate their Factory of the Future Program with their newest venture, Applied Cobotics. Its mission aims to provide automation solutions by integrating collaborative robots (cobots), material lift systems, 3D printing, and other automation technologies into manufacturing systems.
Recent events have helped bring to light the unmet demand for skilled workers within the manufacturing industry. This labor shortage is coinciding with a rise in customer demand, creating a need for higher output with more competitive costs. In addition, shop floors are having to evolve on a dime, becoming more agile to fulfill custom orders and mitigate product fluctuations.
PBC Linear has developed its Factory of the Future Program in response to those needs. A significant focus of that program is Applied Cobotics, which looks to implement new and more efficient technologies to accommodate these new demands. This is being accomplished through relevant industry partnerships and home-made innovation that has been a hallmark of PBC Linear for decades.
www.pbclinear.com
Gates
Introduces New Hydraulic Hose Solution
Gates has introduced its latest hydraulic hose, MegaSysTM MXGTM 5K, which is lighter, more flexible and more durable than a typical 5000 psi (350 bar) hydraulic hose.
The MXG 5K offers wire spiral performance in a flexible, lightweight, innovative, high-pressure hydraulic hose using Gates patented Xpiral woven spiral technology. MXG 5K was tested extensively in the laboratory and in real-world applications throughout its development, including rigorous field testing in tunnel boring, top drives, excavator and wheel loader applications.
“Our ongoing commitment to research and development has resulted in another world-first innovation from Gates. MXG 5K sets a new standard for hydraulic hose,” said Mike Haen, vice president, industrial global product line management. “Combining industry-leading impulse cycle performance at these hydraulic pressures, with the XtraTuff Plus (XTP) cover and the weight and flexibility advantages, delivers a hydraulic solution for the most demanding applications. Nothing else on the market matches MXG 5K.”
MXG 5K is a design-in option or replacement hose solution across a wide variety of industries, including injection molding, heavy manufacturing equipment, mining, forestry, construction, agriculture and logistics, among others. Tested to one million impulse cycles at 250 degrees Fahrenheit (121 degrees Celsius), twice the legacy industry standard for spiral hoses, and with a bend radius that is also 50% of the industry standard, MXG 5K offers truly unparalleled performance.
In addition, this new hose platform is 20% lighter, 25% more flexible and 5% more compact than legacy spiral hoses, improving the safety and ergonomics of hose installation while also enhancing the performance of machinery by reducing weight. Equipped with Gates’ XTP cover as a standard offering, MXG 5K also offers 25 times the abrasion resistance of Gates’ standard cover and more than 800 hours of ozone resistance to minimize downtime related to environmental conditions. As a result, MXG 5K will last longer in the factory or field, including applications in the most extreme conditions.
www.gates.com/mxt
SDP/SI
Offers Brushless Motors for Robotic Applications
Rapid growth in the industrial automation market is producing an urgent need for premium quality parts and services. Stock Drive Products/Sterling Instrument (SDP/SI), a leader in providing mechanical and electromechanical based design, engineering, and precision manufacturing for critical motion and power transmission applications is launching a series of Frameless Motors as a drop-in solution for robotics applications.
Designed to be pressed into a machine’s housing, the SDP/SI NH1-D series Frameless Brushless Motors provide a compact, lightweight, and powerful motor solution. Available in standard sizes, 35 mm, 52 mm, 64 mm, 77 mm, and 100 mm, the frameless motors are machine wound with bondable magnet wire for superior dependability. Each motor features a large inner diameter rotor permitting easy cable management.
With their compact size the NH1-D series frameless motors fit easily into smaller machines requiring precision, high efficiency, low inertia, and high torque density. “Rated for continuous operation the frameless brushless DC motors are an ideal solution for many applications including the replacement of heavier, traditional motors by eliminating components, reducing torsional losses, decreasing weight, system inertia, and size envelope, while providing maximum speed control,” said Jacques Lemire, business unit director, Motors & Motion Control. “Offering an assortment of motion control solutions that ensure accuracy and dependability the frameless motors provide an additional option to those in the robotics, industrial automation, and medical industries.”
Sdp-si.com
Siemens Digital
Releases 2022 Version of Solid Edge Software
Siemens Digital Industries Software has released the 2022 version of Solid Edge software, which brings embedded rules-based design automation, greater capabilities to work with point-cloud, mesh and imported data without the need for translation alongside new tools to for 2.5 axis machining and ultra-efficient upfront fluid flow simulation. Part of Siemens’ Xcelerator portfolio of products, Solid Edge is an intuitive product development platform for accelerating all aspects of product creation, including 3D design, simulation, visualization, manufacturing, and design management.
Highlights for Solid Edge 2022 include:
The new embedded Solid Edge Design Configurator adds rule-based automation and enables quick customization of products based on design parameters and rules, saving time and enabling the capture and reuse of intellectual property in intelligent models.
CAM Pro 2.5 Axis milling is now included in Solid Edge Classic, Foundation and Premium for customers with active maintenance. Fully integrated, it maintains full associativity with design data and provides automated tool path creation combined with machining simulation to help achieve optimized machining operations.
New CAD Direct capabilities allow insertion of third-party data formats without the need for translation while maintaining associativity. Solid Edge 2022 continues to integrate Siemens’ leading Convergent modeling technology, allowing users to mix b-rep and mesh geometries in the same model, again without conversion, making mesh data more useful and reducing product modelling time. Full-color point cloud data can also now be used for visualization purposes directly within Solid Edge, especially useful when retrofitting factories or plants, allowing the positioning of design equipment in the context of the point clouds.
Solid Edge 2022 is available through Xcelerator as a Service, providing access to Siemens’ next-generation, cloud-based collaboration solution including Xcelerator Share, that brings design-focused capabilities (such as 3D/2D CAD view/markup), augmented reality and secure project-based sharing to the Solid Edge community.
“We have been working with and listening to our customers, and in response Solid Edge 2022 has been engineered to help them grow their businesses,” said John Miller, senior vice president, mainstream engineering, Siemens. “The enhancements to Solid Edge 2022 better support modern product development and manufacturing processes, allowing our community of users to do more with available resources and to enable new ways of working that will foster greater innovation.”
Assembly modelling is a constant focus and the 2022 release of Solid Edge delivers the third straight release of improvement. The new Assembly preview mode reduces the amount of data that is loaded, while multi-body assembly modeling mode is a new environment to model internal components within an assembly file. When it comes to locating those hard-to-find parts, the new component finder puts intuitive search at the fingertips with auto-complete suggestive filters.
Finally, Solid Edge 2022 introduces Simcenter Flomaster for Solid Edge software, which brings easy analysis of fluid and thermal flows in piping systems. System-level models are extracted from 3D models (reducing preparation time by up to 90 percent). Built in wizards guide new users towards successful results, while retaining advanced capabilities, such as simulation of rapid dynamic events and pressure surge, for experienced users.
solidedge.siemens.com/en/
