Innovative feedback ensures precise positioning

Integrating an innovative feedback mechanism for precise positional measurement, linear servomotor drives deliver exceptional reliability and robustness along with significant cost savings.

Electrical actuator specialist Copley Motion Systems has announced the European launch of its latest product range - a series of innovative new linear servomotor drives.

The company's ServoTube range combines sophistication with simplicity to deliver unparalleled value.

As part of the global Copley Controls Corporation, the Essex-based Copley Motion Systems business is best known for its acclaimed ThrustTube range of tubular linear motor drives that feature high accuracy, large air gap flexibility, easy direct mounting of payloads, and low heat generation performance.

The new ServoTube products extend the ThrustTube range.

They share the same thermal characteristics but integrate an innovative feedback mechanism for precise positional measurement, delivering exceptional reliability and robustness along with significant cost savings.

Astonishingly, cost-conscious design programmes and enhanced manufacturing techniques at the company's Basildon site allow Copley to offer the new ServoTube products at a lower price.

In short, ServoTube delivers the speed and ruggedness of pneumatics, the controllability of a ballscrew and the reliability of a linear motor at a price unprecedented in the industry.

ServoTube Actuator - Copley's flagship product - is a truly innovative moving Thrust Rod implementation for push/pull/lift applications featuring full-length integral bearings and pneumatic-actuator-compatible mountings for exceptional ease-of-use.

The integral bearing also serves to wipe the actuator rod clean with each stroke, further improving robustness and prolonging operational life.

With no tight-tolerance encoder to align, the ServoTube Actuator products are as easy to install as pneumatic actuators.

In addition to industry-standard mountings and fixings, they are compatible with Xenus amplifiers from Copley Controls Corporation as well as a comprehensive range of third-party drives.

The embedded encoder design provides clear operational advantages by eliminating the possibility of degradation from tarnishing or soiling, or damage by physical contact - a real consideration in contaminated environments.

Copley also produces ServoTube Component, a conventional moving-forcer system with a fixed Thrust Rod, which is ideal for mechanical integration applications.

Typically these don't require the integral bearing but benefit instead from the optimal forcer shape featuring keyed surfaces for easy load mounting and the renowned large air gap for simple maintenance.

ServoTube deploys Copley's proven 25mm diameter Thrust Rod to provide the actuation.

The thrust rod is a patented construction comprising a sealed stainless steel tube enclosing rare-earth magnets to ensure a high density, uniform magnetic field.

The ServoTube forcer is a rugged IP67 rated enclosure that houses the motor coils and position sensing electronics.

The range offers different lengths of forcer to interact with the Thrust Rod magnets and provide a choice of performance values, delivering continuous force from 51N to 104N and a peak force up to 959N, with impressive acceleration figures above 574m/s2 and maximum velocity exceeding 13m/s - all at resolutions down to just +/-6 micron.

Key to the 6 micron resolution and positional repeatability is a pioneering fully-integrated positional feedback mechanism conceived and developed by Copley.

"Our twin design aims were simplicity and affordability," says Bill Luckin, Sales Director at Copley Motion Systems.

"We met these aims and can now deliver a sophisticated linear servo-electric actuator with integrated feedback at keener prices than our standard products.

ServoTube Actuator is a fiercely competitive product range featuring amazing ease of use and low prices that will make it the actuation solution of choice in many applications.

Luckin also expects the drop-in simplicity and industry compatibility of ServoTube to seize market share from traditional pneumatic applications.

Copley Controls Corporation is a worldwide leader in power amplifiers and high performance motion control.

Copley delivers innovative OEM solutions for a wide range of industries including semiconductor, life sciences, packaging and automated assembly/inspection.

Back to top