Scanning for Ideas: Electromechanical Actuators With Rigidity

Edited by Stephen J. Mraz

After extensive research into advancing the performance and rigidity of electromechanical drives, Festo, with U.S. headquarters in Hauppauge, N.Y. (festo.com), has developed EGC actuators. They are said to double the performance and cost 10% less compared to conventional versions.

The company improved rigidity by developing an aluminum profile with an exterior guide. This lets a physically smaller guide handle larger loads. The guide is also closer to the load, so the force and torque generated by the load and exerted on the rail work through a smaller lever arm. The axis works with a toothed-belt actuator (EGC-TB-KF0) or a ball-screw axis (EGC-BS-KF). And with the toothed-belt version, the motor mounts on either side and at either end of the axis. The toothed-belt version comes in 50, 70, 80, 120, and 185 sizes; the ball-screw version comes in 70, 80, 120, and 185. The toothed version has a 10,000-mm stroke (maximum), feed force (maximum) from 50 to 2,000 N, and a top speed of 3 to 5 m/sec. For the ball-screw version, stroke varies from 100 to 3,000 mm, feed force (maximum) is 300 to 3,000 N, and top speed is 0.5 to 2 m/sec.