The welded components of the Mek.A.Nize robots enable engineers to optimize their reach, travel, and stiffness to accommodate specific applications.

The robots—developed by Mek.A. Nize Engineering Inc. of Colorado Springs, Colo., and marketed under the name of "No Compromise"—use arms made of precision, computer-numerical-control machined components that are welded together. This configuration enables engineers to optimize the arm geometry to serve the reach, travel, and stiffness required for its intended application. The system's direct-drive servomotors are precisely matched to the speed and payload requirements demanded by the application.

Maxtor operates the No Compromise robots in a disk drive pick-and-place application in its Class 10 cleanroom environment. The four-axis machines have a 32-inch reach over 360 degrees, are capable of 7 inches of vertical travel, and have a 25-lb. payload capacity. The cleanroom robots are equipped with an optical sensor array that updates the moving target's position, a metered gravity float-down to prevent damage to the moving target, and vacuum scavenging of the arm.

An additional benefit Maxtor realized by using the Mek.A.Nize robots is that they disrupt airflow much less than gantry robots that Maxtor originally considered using. This is an important capability in Class 10 cleanroom applications.

In this application, the Aera flow controller is used to regulate the flow of etching gases delivered by a piezoelectric/diaphragm control valve. An important consideration for Aera engineers was designing the controller to maintain its accuracy over time by equipping it with an internal computer processing unit. This unit has memory sufficient to store calibration curves for up to eight different gases and up to 11 calibration points. By increasing the number of calibration points and providing the instrument with digital processing, the controller's designers combined accuracy and linearity into a single parameter that is a function of setpoint rather than of full scale for most of the controller's operating range. Thus, the FC-D980 flow controllers can operate without their accuracy or linearity degrading through most of their operating range.

The Cattron portable remote control system on the overhead crane at GEC Alsthom's foundry in Stamford, England, allows operators to work in the immediate vicinity of the furnaces without being splashed accidentally by molten metal.

The Stamford Foundry casts and manufactures large diesel engine blocks for engine makers that include the Waukesha Engine division of Dresser Industries in Waukesha, Wis. All four of the Stamford foundry's cranes are equipped with decoders that communicate with controllers. Two decoders are linked to a single controller, and both controllers are contained in a panel in a control room. One controller can be removed to serve as a remote unit on the shop floor. The mobile unit can open the furnace lids by means of a key switch.

Each PRC is connected to the control desk for two reasons: to provide a second key switch contact to the desk to permit the furnace lids to be opened, and to connect the PRC antenna to a suitable external antenna. An external antenna is used if the internal antenna is not strong enough to receive the radio signals due to the electromagnetic interference on the shop floor. Cattron provided a single operating key so that only one PRC can be operated at a time.

Yarn is wound onto the rolling station of the Orion II fabric slitter before being cut to computerized parameters. Computer can store up to 500 programs.

Orion II operators use a touchscreen control panel to direct the system. The machine also can be equipped with an industrial computer capable of storing up to 500 programs containing all requisite process parameters for its tasks.

Calemard engineers designed the Orion II to cut fabric webs 2,200 millimeters wide, traveling at 100 meters per minute, into strips as narrow as 25 mm. There is a separate unwinding station for the mother roll that is equipped with an electromagnetic brake to adjust unwind-ing tension.

The Orion II provides the entire range of Calemard cutting techniques, thermal slitting, crush slitting, ultrasonic cutting, and floating razor blade slitting, or any combination of them.

The highly polished bars of Super Invar 32-5 alloy maintain the mirror alignment required by this Coherent Laser. Horizontal rods support the mirrors.

Coherent Laser Group of Santa Clara, Calif., incorporated rods made of Super Invar 32-5 alloy, developed by Carpenter Technology Corp. of Reading, Pa., in its laser resonator support structures. The iron, nickel, and cobalt alloy was chosen because of its extremely low coefficient of thermal expansion and its high thermal mass.

For example, support rods of aluminum and graphite possessed the requisite low coefficient of thermal expansion, but not the high thermal mass that buffers temperature change. Coherent Laser mounts the three rods horizontally to support mirrors that are themselves gimbal mounted to the ends of each resonator.

According to Paul Ginouves, senior product manager at Coherent Lasers, the Super Invar alloy rods provide the highest immunity to thermal transients over a wide range of temperature conditions. "With these rods in our design, we can often save the expense of elaborate and costly stabilizing systems, and even expand our product offering," he said.

Engineers from Superior Tube and its British counterpart, Fine Tubes Ltd. in Plymouth, designed the draw bench. The machine was made by the Special "T" Co. of Reading, Pa. Operators insert blank steel tubes onto the mandrel with a drive system designed by Sonobond Co. of West Chester, Pa. Bultman Co. of Neuenrade, Germany, made the adjustable die stand that machines the tube blanks to the desired dimensions, mechanical properties, and surface finish. Operators enter those parameters on the draw bench's programmable logic controllers. A tube dampening device prevents vibration that can interfere with the finish.

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