One of the latest additions to the Item aluminium profile machine construction kit, is the "Positioning Set 8 40". At its simplest, this consists of an M6 left-hand stainless steel screw of up to 1m long, which may be located in any Item 8mm T-slot. A threaded block which dovetails into the T-slot is driven by this screw, and at the end of the profile a bearing block is located, and a hand wheel attached to the screw. The block then moves similarly in direction to the cross-slide on a lathe - a full clockwise turn sends the block away from the operator 1mm.
The moving block has an adjustment feature so that play between block and profile may be minimised. It is a simple matter to then incorporate an identical - but this time right-hand - threaded bar which may be attached to the end of the first screw. A similar positioning block is driven by this second thread, and thus contra-directional motion on the same piece of profile is easily obtained, where desired.
Also available, to be incorporated at the hand wheel position, are digital position indicators. These are either mechanical, or for more sophisticated applications, electronic with LCD readout. Thus reliable and repeatable manual positioning can be attained.
The positioning set is likely to prove useful in adjustable tooling, for example in carton-feeding systems or trackside equipment such as simple adjustment mechanisms for bar code readers, ink jet printers or proximity switches. They are also expected to find applications anywhere differently sized products are handled by the same equipment.
These new Positioning Sets are available from Machine Building Systems.