This week at the ATX West Show in Anaheim, we’re showing a line-up of our latest automation systems, including innovative linear and rotary stages for precision motion applications that would otherwise require expensive linear or direct-drive motors. Here’s a look at some of the systems on display:

The latest add-on for our ServoBelt™ and Direct Drive Theta rotary stages is an air-actuated collet closer that securely holds cylindrical goods for tasks such as laser marking, engraving and inspection. Watch the video to learn more.

Precision rotary stages often work as part of inspection, metrology and laser marking systems. But what happens when the good to be inspected is a tiny cylindrical item?

The latest addition to our ServoBelt™ Rotary (SBR) line will debut at the ATX West 2011 Show in Anaheim, Calf., February 8 – 11. The new SBR 50 packs all the advantages of the original SBR 100 into a smaller package that makes it a cost-effective alternative to direct-drive motors in precision, light-duty rotary positioning applications. The new SBR features a through hole of 50 mm, half that of the original SBR but still very large for its overall size. Like the larger SBR 100, which will also be on display at the show, the new model offers a geometric accuracy of 2.5μm TIR or better at any point on the stage and a resolution of 16 arc-sec with a repeatability of ±40 arc-sec. SBR 50 has a gear reduction of 2.68:1.

The DDT100 Series, our most compact rotary stage, now features new encoder options that can reduce its price by as much as one third. The optional encoders, which can be found on stages with the new DDT100LC designation, are optical code wheels offering either 20,000 or 40,000 counts/rev, or 0.3 and 0.15 mrad respectively.

When specifying rotary stages, you might find yourself concentrating first on the allowable payload. But for our ServoBelt rotary stages, you shouldn't make payload your primary focus. These stages are built around duplex angular contact bearings that can handle hundreds of pounds both statically and dynamically in the axial and radial directions.

New model offers precision positioning for heavier loads

ServoBelt™ Rotary has become one of our most popular products, thanks to its combination of positioning performance, compact form factor and large through hole. Now even more applications will be able to reap these advantages.

Avid Corporation makes good use of ServoBelt™ Rotary’s large through-hole and easy installation in a unique vision inspection system for the packaging industry.

In bottle manufacturing operations, inspection is about more than just quality control. It’s also a matter of productivity since technicians can spend hours collecting bottle weight and dimensional data to ensure that molding machines and tooling are running properly. Avid Corporation has been making that quality data a lot easier to collect for more than two decades.

Check out this video of our ServoBelt™ Rotary stage with an ER-16 collet closer. This integrated workpiece holder securely holds cylindrical goods for tasks like laser marking, engraving and inspection.

ServoBelt Rotary stages are now available in a low-cost version that offers smaller through hole dimensions but otherwise keeps all the technical performance of our original ServoBelt Rotary stages.

A large through hole is helpful when you have to pass utilities through the center of a rotary stage. But if you don't need the extra room for utilities, you can opt for a lower cost rotary stage with a standard-sized through hole. Watch this video to learn more.

We test all our motion hardware—including our ServoBelt Rotary stages. Check out this video of our SBR-16 stage during a static clamping repeatability test.