The "the elephant trunk" is becoming famous, an attraction drawing attention to Festo's space at many an engineering exposition. On the surface, the apparatus seems mostly for show. But on looking deeper into its unusual mix of components, however, the Bionic Handling Assistant gives shape to concepts that could change our approach to safety where man and robot interact — something we're sure to experience much more in coming years. Frank Langro explains how light materials, tiny bladder actuators, and very low pressure pneumatics create a robot with 11 degrees of freedom of motion but weighing just over 1 lb — and wouldn't harm much in a collision.

National Semiconductor's LM5017 is a 100 V, 600 mA synchronous step-down regulator with integrated high side and low side MOSFETs. The constant-on-time (COT) control scheme employed in the LM5017 requires no loop compensation, provides excellent transient response, and enables very low step-down ratios.

SP-Series Tiny-Clutches are versatile line of wrap spring clutches available in various configurations allow great flexibility in application. Available for shafts up to 16 mm, torque loads up to 250 in./lbs they can perform many functions, including overrunning, on-off, indexing, and positive stop indexing. We can build special clutches for your application.

Use of air bearings can solve difficult problems in motion applications, especially those involving zero friction, high accuracy, and precision. Semiconductor machine tools and CMMs frequently use air bearings over mechanical bearings to provide the highest level of motion accuracy — more than even the finest mechanical rolling element type bearings. Learn more.

Haydon Kerk Express offers a wide variety of linear motion products such as captive, non-captive, and external stepper motor linear actuators, stainless steel lead screws, anti-backlash nuts, and motorized/non-motorized linear rail systems. The Express product offering is a "sampling" of a much broader product line of motion components and systems.

Three companies worked together to meet the needs of designers of hoists, overhead conveyors, and other equipment requiring safe positioning and velocity or acceleration control. SEW Eurodrive, Hima, and Pepperl+Fuchs integrated safety controllers, drive components, and a reader that determines absolute position from a data matrix code. The system is certified to Safety Integrity Level 3.

Among the more challenging chores in motion control is maintaining accurate heading on moving robots. This sensor incorporates the usual gaggle of gyros and accelerometers but, unlike other tilt compensators, its magnetometers and combination filtering make it immune to distortion. So, vehicles stay on course even when moving through areas with magnetic distortion.

Engineers often seek faster, smoother, quieter. Throw in heavier load capacity, too. To get there, Lee Linear designed its SBI linear guide with a lower profile and a wider base. Then it optimized a cageless ball recirculation system. That lowered vibration and increased both longevity and load capacities, dramatically, to a max exceeding 350 kN.

Hepco's Ring Track System introduced an off-the-shelf, modular route to building precision linear motion assemblies. Still, something was missing. The company fills a gap with a moment load carriage, for applications requiring high offset or downward loads. It gives extra support and rigidity for the carriage, while static or in motion around the track.

Universal lead screw assemblies meet accuracies of 10 microinches/turn and 25 microinches/in. — the best in the industry. Standard lead screws offer accuracies of 50 microinches/turn, 100 microinches/in. Patented nut design maximizes repeatability. Custom lead screw applications using our lead screws welcomed. More details.

Ogura's new micro clutches for paper handling in printers and copiers are higher in torque, lower in cost, and approximately 40% thinner than previous MIC models. Customers looking to reduce weight, size, and cost in high volume applications can adapt these clutches via an integral gear or drive dog hub.

Experience the faces of a new generation of gearboxes with the launch of the revolutionary LP+ Generation 3 from WITTENSTEIN. This new precision gearhead sets new standards for drive systems looking for economic flexibility with 75% higher torques and 50% reduction in noise.

Find technical and dimensions specs online.

Texas Instrument's C2000 devices are 32-bit microcontrollers with high performance integrated peripherals designed for real-time control applications. Its math-optimized core gives designers the means to improve system efficiency, reliability, and flexibility. Powerful integrated peripherals make C2000™ devices the perfect single-chip control solution.

One way to improve a collection of controllers is to add models. Another way is to enhance performance capabilities. Siemens took the latter route when expanding its Simotion D lineup. The new portfolio adds an onboard Profinet interface, doubles I/O, and boosts memory. And, it doubles the axis count a single controller can support, to 128.

The second generation embedded PCs from Beckhoff continues to shrink the size of units first introduced a decade ago. They're compact enough for DIN rail rather than cabinet mounting and come in a robust metal housing. More vitally, they incorporate new multi-core Intel processors, uninterruptible power supply, and internal extension bus (based on PCI Express).

Looking to squeeze higher speed out of its UltraSpeed ball screws, Steinmeyer revamped the mechanism's ball return assembly. The new design uses precision-milled ball deflectors to guide balls into a return channel that spans the whole nut length. Their geometry also minimizes friction, permitting operation at higher speeds with less wear.

When automating the world-famous Royal Shakespeare Theatre, goals included adding flexibility for speedier set changes on a tiny stage that thrusts into the audience and hides little. Solutions meant dangling twice the cables and controlling them better. That control was provided by dual winches and Emerson electronic drives that "all talk to one another."

LEE LINEAR® offers Rolled Ball Screws in inch and metric sizes with ground internal nuts. Sizes offered are .63 in. to 1.5 in. or 16 mm to 32 mm. Accuracy maintained to .001 in. per foot and custom machining can be shipped within days. Lee offers fast ball screw delivery and no extra charge.

SenDEC's Dual Gauge is the solution to maintenance challenges when room and cost are a concern. This meter incorporates a variety of gauges in the top window and in the bottom window. All gauges are 100% epoxy encapsulated for superb environmental durability.

The NEMA ICS 16 standard, available now from IHS, covers the components used in a motion/position control system providing precise positioning, speed control, torque control, or any combination thereof. Examples of these components are control motors (servo and stepping motors), feedback devices (encoders and resolvers), and controls.

For more information on IHS standards, visit us here.

The MIL-E-85082A specification, available now from IHS, covers the requirements for all types of analog shaft angle input to digital output encoders. It is not complete in itself, but should be used in conjunction with MIL-S-81963 which will form an integral part of this specification.

For more information on IHS standards, visit us here.

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