For Greater Productivity

Tubular linear motors are outperforming their counterparts by offering a slew of significant benefits, including their applications in harsh environments and automated warehousing.

There is stored energy, and there is kinetic energy or movement. Motors turn the first into the second. As with everything else, ways to create movement have evolved.

One comparatively recent kind of actuation – tubular linear motion – is gaining favor applications as diverse as machine tool building, factory automation, packaging, printing, and material handling.

LinX tubular linear motors

ANCA Motion is an Australian developer and manufacturer of motion control systems, hardware, and software. ANCA CNC Machines is its sister company. Since 2014, ANCA has used LinX tubular linear motors in its globally renowned tool and cutter grinders, first introducing them in the FX Linear and MX Linear tool grinding machines. Customers in the precision toolmaking industry, where micron-level resolution and throughput are critical, have welcomed improved surface finish, increased efficiency, and reliability gains at a lower operating cost after incorporating LinX tubular linear motors into their machines.

Pneumatic

Pneumatic actuators have a history going back roughly to World War II. Today they are a factory staple, used to quickly (and noisily) move between two set points.

They are a major user of electricity in factories. According to one estimate, using compressed air to perform a task directly takes ten times the energy of using electricity directly due to the waste heat created. One huge bottleneck they can create is their inflexibility. Recalibrating air pressure between different batches can sometimes take hours.

Though inefficient, pneumatics are well-understood and widely used. Depending on the size of a factory, getting compressed air to a source might require multiple compressors and a complicated reticulation system. Leaks throughout such a network are expensive.

ANCA Motion’s LinX motors, on the other hand, work on servo-based, closed-loop control, and changing setpoints is quick and painless, resulting in minimal time between batches. They have an integrated position sensor with 10 µm of resolution that eliminates the need for an external encoder, simplifies system integration, and allows for higher quality and throughput. The savings on energy costs quickly offset the upfront cost, and the payback period versus pneumatics is generally 18 months.

Ball screw

More than a century old, ball screw motion is still around and used in a broad set of applications – from power steering to moving robotic arms. It is an indirect drive method, using nut and thread to turn rotational movement into linear movement.

Ball screw motion has its usefulness, proven by its longevity and also its shortcomings. It is unable to accelerate and decelerate quickly. The contact between moving parts creates wear and friction and requires lubricants, which can become a source of contamination. Wear also leads to increased maintenance costs and decreased performance over time. Another source of bother is the backlash or lost motion caused by the necessary gap between the thread and nut.

LinX motors are much more nimble in comparison, with no backlash due to their direct drive nature, resulting in zero friction between their forcer (a sleeve with copper coils) and shaft (a sealed stainless steel tube containing magnets). The lack of friction means less wear, better longevity, and better quality for tools or whatever other product they are involved in making. They are also capable of achieving velocities as high as 10 m/sec, meaning a major boost for productivity.

LinX® motors are nimble, with no backlash due to their direct drive nature, resulting in zero friction between their forcer and shaft. The lack of friction means less wear, better longevity, and better quality for tools or whatever other product they are involved in making.

Flatbed linear

Flatbed linear motors (simply called linear motors) are described as an unrolled version of a rotary electric motor, with the rotor (containing magnets) being the stationary part and the forcer (containing coils), the moving part.

Non-factory examples include maglev trains and railguns. Within industrial settings, such linear motors have found their high precision, velocity, and force abilities applied to material handling scenarios and machine tools.

Another way they improve the ball screw motion is by having no backlash or reversal error.

A downside to this kind of direct drive motor is its inability to be used in harsh environments. Mechanical stress and heat are generated due to the attractive forces between the rotor and forcer. This can require the use of a separate chiller to control, which in turn increases the total cost of ownership. The strong downforce causes extreme wear of the motor’s railings, leading to their frequent replacement.

The answer to this is a tubular linear motor that makes full use of magnetic flux and has greater thermal stability and an increased lifespan due to no contact between the forcer and shaft, with zero attractive forces due to the LinX motor’s symmetrical design. These features make it suitable for use in harsh applications. This leads to a lower total cost of ownership and better precision.

Knowing the company behind

ANCA Motion’s linear motors were originally developed to give ANCA CNC Machines an edge in a highly-competitive global industry. ANCA is a world leader in CNC tool grinding technology, with a series of world firsts since 1974. It exports almost all of what it makes at its Melbourne headquarters.

The LinX series has a heritage in tool manufacture and has a growing list of customers the world over. They are used across various industries in diverse applications, including pick and place, labeling, pressing, reject sorting, stacking, transfer, line distribution, and many other material handling applications within automated warehousing.

Besides LinX, the company offers a range of servo drives, human-machine interfaces, and control systems.

ANCA Motion has decades of experience developing motion control solutions and partners with customers to build custom solutions. This is supported by a local team of engineering, sales, and service experts ready to help expand Australia’s sovereign manufacturing capability.

Along with custom motors, ANCA Motion supplies standard LinX linear motors in two ranges: M-Series (continuous force of 80 N to 287 N, peak force of 1200 N) with IP 66 rating and S-Series (continuous force of 335 N to 630 N and peak force of 4270 N) with IP 67 rating.

Source: ANCA Motion