Heidenhain's new LIDA 400 exposed incremental linear encoder features
'customer-friendly' mounting tolerances, fast traversing speeds (up to
480m/min) and a scanning head with an overall height of just 12mm. The
high-accuracy scale tape (20 micron period) and improved scanning optics
combine to reduce errors, even after large interpolation factors have
been taken into account. Thanks to the new beam path configuration and
photo-detector, the scanning surface remains large at 14.5mm2, despite
the small scanning head. The encoder is thus relatively tolerant of
contamination.