Power Transmission Engineering Magazine
www.powertransmission.com/articles/4179

Heavy Duty Traverse Drives Double Pitch Accuracy

April 18, 2012
Amacoil/Uhing has upgraded their large sizes of RG traverse drives by adding a 100-notch scale to the pitch adjustment control. Whereas the previous model of pitch scale had only fifty notches, the new 100-notch upgrade doubles linear pitch accuracy facilitating more precision in incremental linear movement. Now, the RG50, RG60 and RG80 drives have a 10:1 linear pitch range which is adjustable over one hundred discrete notched settings. Moving the pitch control lever one notch up or down changes pitch by 0.01. Previously, moving the pitch control lever resulted in only a 0.02 change in linear pitch. The upgrade means that now all Uhing traverse motion drives have the more accurate 100-notch linear pitch scale. A worm gear option is available by which the notched pitch settings are bypassed and linear pitch is infinitely adjustable (over the 10:1 range) using a control knob. Large Uhing RG traverse drives from Amacoil provide from 225 to 800 pounds of axial thrust and are primarily used for traverse winding of thick cable, heavy rope and chain onto wide, large diameter flanged spools and reels. RG drives are also used for linear motion in packaging and converting equipment, and in other production machinery requiring a reciprocating linear motion component. As with all Uhing traverse drives, the large RG series features "rolling ring" engineering enabling mechanical control over reversal thereby eliminating the need for electronic controls and a reversible motor. With travel direction and linear pitch independent of the drive motor, OEM design engineers will find that RG drives simplify machine design. Operator training, maintenance and operation are also made easier. The Uhing RG traverse winding drive is a friction drive which must run on a case hardened and precision ground shaft. Amacoil offers RG drives separately or in an assembly complete with shaft, pillow block end supports, bearings and adjustable end stops. Assemblies are custom built to meet customer requirements.