Customised positioning system and control unit for SCS

The technology allows for accurate temperature detection, corrosion and erosion monitoring and life-time predictions. This in turn contributes to optimising machine operation, can reduce fuel costs whilst maintaining material integrity.

The company has worked with LG Motion over a number of years and this latest project was to design a positioning system to improve the reliability and consistency of their scanning and measurements.

The requirement

A customised XYZR Positioning system was required to scan an area of 500mm x 500mm x 500mm and move a Measurement Sensor over the area at speeds of up to 20mm per second. The equipment would be designed and manufactured as a “stand alone” piece of equipment which would then be mounted at SCS onto an optical work surface.

As a key requirement is to achieve uniformity of scans, positional repeatability is very important.

The solution

The XYZR motorised scanning system consists of tried and tested linear dovetail slides and a worm and wheel driven rotary table, each axis being driven by a stepper motor

The system is manufactured from a high-grade aluminium alloy and employs linear dovetail bearings with precision leadscrews for accuracy and reliability.

Features of the XYZR system

• Usable travel: 500mm x 500mm x 500mm
• Positioning repeatability: XYZ <0.05 mm, uni-directional and R <0.01 degree, uni-directional
• Working speed: XYZ, up to 20mm per second and R up to 90 degrees per second
• Working load: XYZ, up to 1kg and R, up to 50kg
• Limit switches: Microswitch fitted at extremes of travel