The perfect motion

The ALAR tables ideal for both horizontal and vertical applications, for example in aerospace technology or medical engineering. This means, for all applications where demanding rotary motions, uniform scanning speeds and precise incremental steps are required. “Our newly developed, directly driven rotary tables from the ALAR series offer excellent angular positioning and speed consistency,” says Norbert Ludwig, managing director of Aerotech in Frth. Due to its extremely high torque, the ALAR-XP is virtually predestined for payloads with a high moment of inertia and high mass, when fast accelerations and particular uniform motion are required at the same time for high-precision testing and manufacturing processes.

There are also numerous advantages over worm drives: Since ALAR rotary tables use torque motors with direct drive, they are free from play, vibration and wear. And they can achieve much higher speeds and accelerations than, for example, rotary tables with worm drive. In practice, this leads to improved system accuracy, repeatability and longevity and thus to higher throughput. “Whether fast motion or aggressive vibration of payloads and test specimens – we create the perfect motion with the ALAR-XP series. Users can produce, inspect or process more parts more precisely in less time, resulting in lower operating costs and higher profits”, says Ludwig.

All ALAR tables are directly driven by brushless motors without slot. Since there are no worm gears, gears or clutches to move, ALAR tables can achieve high speeds and acceleration as well as consistent, stable performance with no backlash, hysteresis or wear over time. The rotary tables are driven by motors without slot and without iron core. This results in a low-vibration, low-noise motion with virtually no cogging torque and exceptionally uniform motion. ALAR tables are particularly suitable for applications where outstanding contour motion, uniform scanning speeds and precise incremental steps are required. ALAR-XP rotary tables are based on Aerotech’s powerful BLMX series, which delivers the highest power and torque of any commercially available brushless and ironless motor without slot. Conventional rotary tables for high torques typically use either gear reductions or slotted iron core motors, but these have both disadvantages with high-precision positioning at high and uniform speed. “The ALAR-XP is a real game changer because users can achieve high torques without compromising the quality of motion,” explains Ludwig.

Applications for ALAR-XP tables can be found in the field of test systems for single and multi-axis sensors, missile tracking systems, measurement of the radiation characteristics of antennas, testing of gyroscopes, adjustment and measurement of large optics as well as high-precision laser processing. ALAR-XP tables can also be configured as two-axis gimballed suspensions. The large aperture diameter and the powerful direct drive motor make the ALAR-XP a more powerful alternative to conventional rotary tables with worm drive or direct drives with slotted iron core motors.