Mechanical Components

Researchers at the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering have demonstrated that a specially designed robot can outperform humans in identifying a wide range of natural materials according to their textures - paving the way for advancements in prostheses, personal assistive robots, and...

Sarstedt (Newton, NC) has introduced a screw cap with pierceable membrane for use with its range of 0.5 mL to 2 mL micro tubes. When used in combination with a screw cap micro tube, the membrane cap enables efficient filling without unnecessary cap manipulation. Made from medical grade polypropylene, the cap features an...

The Simotion Scout, the engineering system used for configuring Simotion motion controllers from Siemens Industry (Atlanta, GA), has been updated with a range of usability improvements. Simotion is the scalable motion control system that enables central machine functions to be implemented with just one controller. It is...

Today’s sensor technologies for robotic and medical applications include many devices that have evolved from industrial applications. Because of this general migration, they are not ideally suited to the requirements in new robotic and medical products....

Keystone Electronics (Astoria, NY) has developed a series of anti-vibration grommets engineered for electrical insulation, mechanical damping, and noise suppression in office or lab equipment. The devices feature “fingers” that flex as needed to dampen unwanted noise or vibration. Incorporated are special shoulder...

Clippard Instrument Laboratory (Cin - cinnati, OH) has introduced a high-flow stepper-controlled 2-way proportional valve that features 2% hysteresis, excellent linearity (2.5% of full scale), and 2 ms reaction time. A flow range of 0 to 200 slpm is standard, but it is highly modifiable for OEM applications including...

Applimotion (Loomis, CA) offers ULT, UTH, UTS, and UTO frameless motor kits that cover a wide range of applications, including robots, inspection platforms, medical diagnostic machines, and imaging systems. With resistances down in the milliohm range, these motors are suitable for battery-operated systems ranging from...

Mdrive® integrated motor products from Schneider Electric Motion USA (Marlborough, CT) are now available for EtherNet/IP™ systems, allowing OEMs to simultaneously control and configure intelligent motion control devices over one network for a range of industrial applications. The motion systems feature integrated...

Maxon Precision Motors (Fall River, MA) has introduced the ESCON 36/2 DC, a 4-quadrant PWM servo controller for use with DC motors up to 72 Watts. This digital current controller provides drift-free yet dynamic speed behavior through a speed range of 1 to 150,000 RPM. The servo controller is controlled by means of an analog set...

The V12Z06MA Series of conical antivibration base mounts from Advanced Antivibration Components (New Hyde Park, NY) are designed to dampen shock and vibration for compression loads up to 1632 kgf (3598 lbf). Their metric housing is made of zinc plated steel and the isolator is made of a nitrile rubber compound that offers...

POSITAL, a unit of FRABA Inc. (Hamilton, NJ), now offers absolute rotary encoders with a combined interface that enables simultaneous communication of both absolute and incremental rotary position data. The new interface reports absolute rotary position data to the PLC using the synchronous serial interface (SSI) standard,...

Today, engineers are successfully attacking problems from vibrational loosening to joint fatigue with a self-locking fastener called Spiralock, whose effectiveness has been validated in published test studies at leading institutions including MIT, the Goddard Space Flight Center, and British...

Advanced medical device designs are evolving rapidly and demand higher standards for medical equipment reliability. Applying linear motion components to these medical applications yields the best results when collaboration begins at the early stages of the design. Beginning with specification...

Excelitas Technologies (Waltham, MA) has released the DigiPile thermopile detector with digital output, combining an MEMS-based sensing element with a fully integrated low noise amplifier, A/D converter, and integrated ambient temperature sensor. It also includes an internal clock and control unit. It is designed for a range...

The drylin® HTSP-FF leadscrew table from igus (East Providence, RI) includes a quick-release nut that makes format adjustments faster and easier by reducing the number of revolutions required to position the carriage on a leadscrew assembly with a small pitch. The table can be adjusted by pushing a button,...