Online magazine for design and development

Here you will find everything that the designer needs for his design and the development engineer for his new development, from the draft to quality assurance in production, such as new products, their applications, new technologies or research results. Company reports as well as topics on technological and megatrends in all industrial sectors complete our range of industry news. Let's start with the news.

Company News

Ebm-Papst wants to sell industrial drive technology to Siemens
The Ebm-Papst Group has announced that it will sell its Industrial Drive Technology (IDT) division to Siemens AG. Both sides have signed a corresponding agreement.
Jumo's new Sensilo plant construction is progressing
Jumo is building a factory in the technology park for the production of temperature and pressure sensors with a production area of ​​around 13 m². At around 000 million euros, the new building is the largest investment in the company's history.
3DExperience Word 2024 in Dallas
At 3DExperience World 2024 in February in Dallas, Texas, Dassault Systèmes celebrated the event's 25th anniversary. The annual user meeting supports the global community in the development of future-proof products and processes.
Michael Koch GmbH moves into a new workshop
There is now more space available in Michael Koch's “Factory” for the assembly of customer- and machine-specific safe braking resistors. The new, modern hall was recently “taken by storm” by the employees.
Elon Musk is suing OpenAI for profit-making
Elon Musk files a lawsuit against OpenAI and CEO Sam Altman, accusing them of breach of contract because the company, which was originally designed as a nonprofit, is now operating for profit.
AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Industry news for your design and development from the specialist areas

communication technology

communication technology

World's first Omlox testing laboratory put into operation

The first Omlox testing laboratory in the world has been launched. The PI granted the Fraunhofer Institute Lemgo approval as a PI test laboratory for Omlox.

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switch cabinet

switch cabinet

On to the intelligent drive train for predictive maintenance

The Roba-brake-checker module or the torque-measuring shaft coupling from Mayr ensure intelligent safety in smart production.

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plastics

plastics

The first 100 Igus bikes hit the streets

The first 100 Igus Urban Bikes hit the streets and an in-house production facility with a capacity of 10.000 bicycles is set up in Cologne.

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Couplings

Couplings

Torque measuring shaft coupling

The smart steel multi-plate coupling Roba-drive-checker from Mayr can do more than just transmit torque and compensate for shaft misalignment.

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INDUSTRY SPECIALS

Industry news for your design and development from the branches

food technology

food technology

Lubrication and sealing-optimized linear guide

Schaeffler presents linear guides for food technology with optimized seals, wipers and long-term lubrication units.

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Mobile Machinery

Mobile Machinery

Flexible, customizable gateway for agricultural technology

IFM Electronic is presenting the Isobus Gateway at the Hannover Messe, which is designed for agricultural equipment and can be specifically adapted.

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Energy Technology

Energy Technology

All Electric Society – vision of the future of connectivity

At the Hannover Messe Preview, Harting gives an outlook on the Hannover Messe and draws the future picture of an “All Electric Society”.

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Inverter

Inverter

Certified servo controller with Profisafe interface

At Logimat, Wittenstein is presenting a safety-certified servo controller with a Profisafe interface and integrated safety card for AGVs.

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EXHIBITION SPECIALS

Industry fair news

Hannover Messe promotes energy for sustainable industry
As a networked industrial ecosystem, the exhibitors demonstrate how climate neutrality can be achieved through the use of electrification, digitalization and automation under the guiding theme of Energizing a sustainable Industry.
Control Fair 2024 | The industry is already looking forward to Stuttgart
Control 2024, the important international trade fair for quality assurance, will take place from April 23rd to 26th in Stuttgart. The trade fair places a particular focus on automation and digitalization.
SPS Nuremberg: Now in 16 halls!
The SPS – Smart Production Solutions from November 14th to 16.11th. 2023 will see significant growth in the trade fair compared to the previous year and is on the way to pre-Corona levels.

IAI compares the advantages of modern electric cylinders Pneumaticsylinder based on the "Robo Cylinder" product series: They are not susceptible to load fluctuations, enable jerk-free starting and stopping, simple speed regulation and the control of a wide variety of positions with the highest level of repeatability.

IAI electric cylinder

Contents

Electric cylinder versus pneumatic cylinder

For cost and environmental reasons, electric cylinders have become an integral part of modern, sustainable production. She save energy and at the same time contribute to a “green” image for the manufacturing companies.

The company determined and compared the energy consumption for a compressed air cylinder and an electric cylinder (Robo Cylinder) running in parallel. The comparison took place under identical conditions with the same parameters: pressure holding time, energy costs per unit, compressed air costs per unit, speed, payload, stroke length, ambient temperature and operating time.

The costs were based on an industrial electricity price of 0,1 euros per kWh under the condition of uninterrupted operation and efficient compressorss calculated. It turned out that even small leaks can cause considerable costs. A leakage hole of one sixteenth of an inch (1,6 mm) causes additional annual costs of 688 euros, a leak twice as large (3,2 mm) already 2750 euros, while a hole of only ¼ inch (6,4 mm) a company can even cost the proud amount of 11.000 euros per year.

Even without a visible hole, leaks - even the size of a pinprick - generally cause energy bills to skyrocket. This Leaks can be a cause of energy waste in an industrially used compressed air system that should not be underestimated; in some cases the loss can be up to 20 to 30% of compressor performance. If the air pressure in the system drops due to leaks, pneumatically driven machines work less economically - production costs often rise dramatically.

Problem solving: Electric cylinders

IAI power consumptionWith electric cylinders, these expensive losses can be a thing of the past. The electric cylinders are characterized by easy-to-use software and offer all the advantages of a high-quality electric axis. Your effective efficiency is reached 80 to 90%, while the typical overall efficiency of a pneumatic system is only around 10%.

As the cycle frequency increases, the energy requirement of a pneumatic cylinder increases linearly, while power consumption increases in the energy efficient ones RoboCylindern remains constant. This means that the difference in energy consumption increases with the number of work cycles per minute. If both cylinders operate at 10 cycles per minute, a Robo Cylinder only uses 1/3 of the energy of the pneumatic cylinder.

If both cylinders operate at 30 cycles per minute, this difference becomes even more noticeable: the Robo Cylinder only needs a tenth of the energy of the pneumatic cylinder. Electric cylinders therefore represent a quickly amortizing investment with comparatively high savings potential.


Servo motor and servo amplifier predictively maintained with AI


But electric cylinders are also clearly ahead in terms of precision and programmable options, as some examples show: The Robo Cylinders enable multi-point positioning of over 500 different positions with a high repeatability of ± 0,02 mm. This means that a large number of different products can be produced with just a single production line.

The force (thrust force) exerted by the electric cylinders can be precisely controlled by simply adjusting the position values. In this way is a constant pressure possible. This function is interesting when pushing, clamping, detecting, press fitting or Clamping workpieces – and results in higher production quality.

The speed, acceleration and deceleration of the Robo Cylinder can be precisely programmed for each position. This improves cycle times, can drastically reduce damage to workpieces and increase product quality.

Useful warning signal without sensors

When the Robo Cylinder reaches a certain, preset section, an outgoing signal can be sent without additional Sensors be generated automatically. The output of such a (warning) signal can be useful and necessary for a wide variety of applications. Since no additional sensors are required for this, this saves additional investments in sensors and theirs Maintenance and operation.

Unlike pneumatic systems, Robo Cylinders can stop a slide at any point and decelerate until it stops when receiving an external signal during operation. So z. B. collisions are avoided.


stepper motor | Precise low cost positioning


In the fixed-path continuous method, repetitive motion is possible based on the data of a single position. Working with a single position data set without entering many individual positions significantly simplifies the programming effort. A desired, fixed distance can be so quickly entered into a position data table.

The Robo Cylinder DCstepper motor-ERC2/RCP2 series stop immediately and do not generate any micro-oscillations as with conventional ACServomotor-drives. That's why they are suitable for, for example measuring systems with cameras.

Source: This article is based on information from IAI.

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