High speed, compact and price-competitive cylinder actuators that provide an alternative to pneumatic cylinders with superior performance. SMAC electric cylinders offer life cycle well beyond 100 million cycles and the ability to repeat a move within one millisecond with no stiction. The conventional cylinder actuator shape and multiple mounting points allow the electric cylinders to be directly retrofitted in most cases.
The Latest SMAC Electric Cylinder Offers High Performance and Cost Benefits - Prices Starting as Low as $300.
Many users of pneumatic cylinders - in many industries - are looking for electric actuator alternatives for a number of reasons:
On the fly ability to change speed, stroke, force.
Higher cycle rates
Longer cycle life
Ability to feed back in real time what happened when work was done
Elimination of pneumatic infrastructure (Compressor, tank, dryer, etc.)
Energy savings
Noise reduction
Up to now this need has been difficult to fill. First off is cost - pneumatic cylinder/valve/flow control/position switch sets cost somewhere around $150. Even low cost stepper ball screw actuators cost more and only provide the programmable speed and stroke capability. Cycle life is the same and speeds are usually slower. Linear motor driven actuators are technically much better. And Moving Coil type linear motors have the highest cycle rate and cycle life - >2 x faster than air cylinders with cycle life 10 x longer. They offer programmable speed, position, and force. They also have the ability to report back in real time how the work was done. They inherently have non rotating shafts. The drawback has always been the cost. 5 to 10 times higher than pneumatic systems. That has changed.
The SMAC LDL actuator has a number of very innovative cost reduction elements that result in a list price of $325 for a 25 mm stroke unit, $350 for 50 mm. These include:
Printed Coil technology with integrated SMAC encoder reader head. Effective investment make this zero.
Laser cut parts resulting in housing and end cap process times in the 5 to 30 second range.
1 piece multi -pole neodymium magnets.
Precision linear guide life tested to 500M cycles.
Automatic assembly - including smart screw driving - done using SMAC’s own products.
SMAC’s built in VLC (Very Low Cost) controller amplifier offered with various communication protocols.
Early wins over the world’s leading pneumatic equipment makers resulted from the following performance edges:
Cycle rate of 10 CPS vs pneumatic cylinders limited to 5 CPS. (Slamming of the air cylinder piston causes premature leak).
Non rotating shaft eliminated the need for a guide shaft on the air cylinder which caused premature cycle failure.
Programmable on the fly movement profile change made the machine process flexible and virtually eliminated set up time.
The LDL is now offered in 25 mm width (1/2 inch and 1 inch). Other standard sizes are being added and the use of laser cutting technology also results in quick development of special shapes - this is called MCA inside.
Reduce Noise Pollution
In an internal study, SMAC Moving Coil Actuators showed evidence of a 50% reduction in decibels generated by moving coil actuators versus traditional pneumatic actuators.
People who work in a traditional production environment, often accept noise pollution as a necessary occupational hazard. However, evolving moving coil technology is making strides in noise control/reduction. Pneumatics range from 100-120 dBA. SMAC's team averaged this to 110 dBA for the study. (As a point of reference, shouting directly into someone’s ear is rated at 110 dBA.) By comparison, SMAC Moving Coil Actuators came in at 40-60 dBA, depending on conditions, averaging at 50 dBA, literally less than half of the noise produced by pneumatics. This level of noise is comparable to a quiet library or office environment.
While there are methods to muffle pneumatic actuators, few will reduce noise generated to the 40-60 dBA range measured in SMAC Moving Coil Actuators.
The low noise generated by SMAC actuators is attributed to its airless operation. There is no compressed air generation required with SMAC. At the heart of all SMAC actuators is the moving coil, also described as a voice coil actuator. The essential principle is the same as a permanent magnet loudspeaker. The voice coil sits in a strong magnetic field, and by passing a current through the coil a force is generated in either direction.
