Product category:
Actuators, motion systems, etc
News Release from: Aerotech | Subject: ABL1000 miniature linear air bearing stage
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 26 June 2006
Miniature linear stage is accurate to 2
micron
A miniature linear air bearing stage has massive potential for high performance alignment and assembly and offers 0.2 micron accuracy in a completely non-contact design.
ABL1000 miniature linear air bearing stage has massive potential for high performance alignment and assembly and offers 0.2 micron accuracy in a completely non-contact design Aerotech's ABL 1000 series miniature air bearing stages are designed for ultra-high performance alignment applications in semiconductor manufacture, fibre optics, photonics, MEMS and nanotechnology
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 11 Jul 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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Available in travel ranges of 25mm, 50mm, 100mm and 150mm, the miniature stages include non-contact linear brushless servo motors and linear encoders for completely friction free performance with speeds to 300mm/sec and positioning resolution as low as 1.0nm with the A3200 Digital Automation Platform control system.
All Aerotech air bearings include an active preload on both vertical and horizontal surfaces with opposing thin-film pressure maintaining the air gap over maximum sized bearing surfaces.
This design results in excellent stiffness and an inherent averaging effect where the thin film will fill small surface voids resulting in superior pitch, roll, yaw, and straightness and flatness specifications.
Further reading
Sealed gantry handling system avoids dirt ingress
A sealed version of a linear motor driven, X-Y gantry system is particularly suited to applications such as high throughput laser machining and welding.
Open frame air bearing stage has long life
An open frame air bearing stage provides the specification for through-aperture step and scan positioning and uses preloaded air bearings, direct-drive linear motors and high resolution encoders.
Low profile rotary stage offers high speed
A low profile, high speed, compact rotary stage provides a solution for compact positioning spindle applications and operates at up to 15,000 deg/s.
The ABL1000 uses, brushless cog-free, linear motors with Ndrive HL series linear amplifiers offering improved stability and much lower noise when compared to PWM based servo drives.
Direct drive linear motors are inherently faster in acceleration and top speed than leadscrew driven stages.
They provide exceptionally smooth slow-speed and precise step and repeat positioning performance with zero backlash, no hysterisis and excellent in-position stability.
The non contact design combines well with air bearings and linear encoders for an extremely long life with minimal maintenance.
A choice of linear encoders is available providing a nominal positional accuracy of 1 micron or 2 micron.
When combined Aerotech's HALAR option with interferometer based calibration of each axis, the 25mm travel version boasts accuracy to within +/-0.2 micron.
Specifications for repeatability are +/-50nm and the straightness and flatness differential is 0.25 micron/25mm travel.
Pitch, roll and yaw are within 25 arc-sec over 25mm.
The ABL1000's miniature design includes 25mm, 50mm and 100mm travel stages in a 160mm wide platform with maximum length of 310mm for the longest travel stage.
The 150mm travel version is slightly wider at 185mm with overall length of 407mm.
Maximum individual load is 15kg reduced to 10kg for an X-Y configured stage.
An integral cable management system simplifies installation.
Control options for the ABL1000 include the A3200 Digital Automation Platform, a software based machine control system combining motion, HMI, PLC and vision control modules with an industry standard Firewire high performance communication network for up to 32 axes of high speed motion; additionally a 10/100 Base T Ethernet interface may be used to add third party I/O and PLCs.
The A3200 can be configured for fast photonic alignment applications with built-in power optimisation routines with interfacing to industry standard power meters.
Integrated vision systems are also available for automating fibre optic production processes or for rapid product and application development.
Aerotech's Virtual Pivot Point Software uses reverse kinematics principles to compensate for moment errors in multi-axis linear and rotary alignment systems that typically slow down the alignment process and increase the time taken to optimise power coupling.
The software simultaneously makes a compensation move during alignment ensuring that production throughput is maximised.
Aerotech's complete systems include all motor power and encoder cables plus performance and calibration related documents and a CD containing interconnection drawings to help integrators with their own system documentation; all motor parameter set-up data for system configuration is included, making commissioning straightforward.
These features are standard for every Aerotech system and with full product training and comprehensive on-line technical support, the true cost of ownership is extremely competitive. Request a free brochure from Aerotech ...
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