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Robots think and act on the fly at moving assembly line speeds

Inbolt and FANUC are launching a manufacturing breakthrough enabling FANUC robots to tackle one of the most complex automation challenges: performing production tasks on continuously moving parts at line speeds. With Inbolt's AI-powered 3D vision, manufacturers can now automate screw insertion, bolt rundown, glue application, and other high-precision tasks on parts moving down the line without costly infrastructure investments or cycle time compromises.
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Best high-speed rotary bearing in THK history

THK has developed its best-performing, high-speed rotary bearing ever: the High-Speed, Double-Row Angular Contact Ring BWH. This rotary bearing has balls aligned inside a cage between the inner and outer rings and is part of the THK Rotary Series, along with the cross-roller ring. The main features of this product are its ability to receive loads in all directions as well as its high rigidity and rotational accuracy, which are equal to that of cross-roller rings. By adopting a new structure to change the rolling elements from rollers to balls, this product achieves the greatest high-speed performance ever offered by THK.
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Elevating tables: Precise vertical positioning in tight spaces

As semicon-ductors and optical components become smaller and more sophisticated, the TZ Series of precision elevating tables from IKO International provides exceptional vertical positioning accuracy in a compact size. This unit features a unique wedge mechanism guided in the vertical direction by a pair of IKO C-Lube Super MX linear motion rolling guides arranged in parallel to achieve highly precise positioning with exceptional rigidity. An optional linear encoder provides full closed loop control to achieve positioning accuracy as high as 0.005 mm, with repeatability of +/-0.001 mm.
Learn more and get all the specs.

This cobot is all about safety around people

The COBOTTA PRO from DENSO Robotics is a lightweight, high-speed collaborative robot designed for communication between workers and robots while maximizing productivity. It delivers a blend of productivity and safety for both simple tasks and multi-step processes like assembly and inspection work. The 6-axis unit operates at speeds up to 2,500 mm per sec when no workers are near and slows or stops when people approach. Two models available: PRO 900 (max payload 6 kg) and PRO 1300 (max payload 12 kg). Many more functions and features.
Learn more.

Powerful, pull-type clapper solenoids handle myriad jobs

New powerful, low-profile, pull-type clapper solenoids are available from Magnetic Sensor Systems (MSS). Applications include valve control, locks, starters, ventilators, clamping, sorting, appliances, tools, HVAC, brakes, clutches, switches, mixing, fire suppression systems, door controls, detent latches, and more. The S-16-264 Series of 17 Pull-Type Clapper Solenoids have ampere turns (windings) adjusted to meet the specific force and duty cycle requirements of your application. They provide up to 130 lb (578 N) of force.
Get all the specs for these solenoids and other options.

Tech Tip: Belt, screw, or chain-driven actuator?

Bishop-Wisecarver provides a quick, very useful guide to help you evaluate the right drive strategy for your system: belt, screw, or chain-driven actuator. Each drive type has unique advantages and limitations, so evaluating all your options will help you find the most suitable actuator setup for your specific application needs.
Read the Bishop-Wisecarver blog.

Ultra-precise linear stage -- down to 0.005 microns

PI, a global leader in precision motion control and nanoposi-tioning, now offers fast delivery of the L-511 linear micropositioning stage, which is designed for applications requiring minimum incremental motion down to 20 nm, drive forces up to 22 lb, and multi-axis configuration options. The L-511 can be combined to form XY or XYZ motion systems and integrated with rotary stages. A variety of drive and encoder options (stepper and servo motors, rotary, and linear encoders) enable ultra-fine sensitivity. Applications include: metrology, laser processing, semiconductors, biotech, optical alignment, and advanced automation.
Learn more and get all the specs.

Choosing the right stepper motor: PM or hybrid?

According to the experts at Lin Engineering, there are two primary types of stepper motors to consider: permanent magnet (PM) and hybrid. But which is right for your application? Both types have their advantages and disadvantages, and the choice ultimately depends on your specific requirements.
Read this informative Lin Engineering article.

New PTFE-free linear guide for precise positioning

The new drylin WWP linear guide from igus features a PTFE-free locking carriage. Engineered from lubrication-free, high-performance polymers and aluminum, the guide offers a lightweight, hygienic, and low-maintenance alternative to complex mechanical and electronic adjustment systems. It is significantly more compact and lightweight than conventional recirculating ball-bearing systems. Applications include interior components in vehicles, aircraft, and furniture.
Learn more and get all the specs.

Heavy-duty gear units for mixing and agitating systems

MAXXDRIVE industrial gear units from NORD DRIVE-SYSTEMS are an established drive solution for heavy-duty applications. In addition to conveying, lifting, and driving, they also play an important role in mixing and agitating systems. MAXXDRIVE units feature a compact, one-piece UNICASE housing that delivers long service life, easy maintenance, and quiet operation. Their robust design handles high axial and radial loads, achieves output torques up to 2,495,900 lb-in., and powers up to 8,075 hp.
Learn more.

What are non-captive linear actuators?

According to PBC Linear, their new non-captive linear actuators are different from the more common external versions of lead screw-driven linear actuators because they allow the lead screw to completely pass through the motor. This fundamental difference offers advantages for designs that have limited space available or for engineers looking to shrink the overall size of their design package.
Read the full PBC Linear blog.

Güdel introduces Swiss-quality tracks for cobots

Güdel Inc. is highlighting new technologies at Automate 2025 booth #2418 that demonstrate its unmatched ability to solve automation engineering challenges. One is the Cobomover, a 7th-axis linear track purpose-built for collaborative and lightweight robots. Designed and manufactured in Switzerland, this unit extends the working range of robots up to 5 m, allowing them to operate multiple workstations and perform a variety of tasks without manual repositioning. Compatible with over 60 cobots and small traditional robots.
Learn more and get all the specs.

New open-center XYZ stage

ThruSight-Focus is a high-performance, compact motion platform specifically engineered for applications requiring dual-side access to the sample or workpiece. It pairs ALIO's monolithic open-center XY stage -- known for its nanometer-level precision, crossed roller bearings, and direct linear drives -- with a novel Z-wedge mechanism that converts horizontal drive force into vertical motion via direct drive. This innovative architecture eliminates backlash, enhances servo responsiveness, and delivers fast, stable Z-axis movements -- all within a low-profile footprint.
Learn more.

Eaton unveils differential engineered for EVs

Intelligent power management company Eaton launched a new differential engineered specifically for electric vehicles at Auto Shanghai 2025 in China. The innovative design addresses the unique challenges presented by EV propulsion systems, including shared low-viscosity oil environments, increased sensitivity to noise, and the demands of high and instant torque delivery.
Read the full article.

Top Product: Integrated servo system is 20% smaller than standalone unit

Applied Motion Products has introduced the MDX+ series, a family of low-voltage servo systems that integrate a servo drive, motor, and encoder into one package. This all-in-one drive is an ideal solution for manufacturers in logistics, AGV, medical, semiconductor, the solar industries, and many others.
Read the full article.

Engineers design motorless sailplanes for Mars exploration

Aerospace engineering doctoral student Adrien Bouskela (left) and aerospace and mechanical engineering professor Sergey Shkarayev hold an experimental sailplane. They hope to one day send a custom version of a similar plane to Mars. [Credit: University of Arizona College of Engineering]

 

 

 

 

Eight active spacecraft, including three operated by NASA, orbit Mars, gathering imagery of the planet's surface at a resolution of about 1 ft per pixel. Three rovers traverse the ground, mapping small areas of the planet with greater precision. But what lies in the hundreds of kilometers between the rovers and the orbiters -- including atmospheric climate processes and geological features like volcanoes and canyons -- is often of most interest to planetary scientists.

"You have this really important, critical piece in this planetary boundary layer, like in the first few kilometers above the ground," said Alexandre Kling, a research scientist in NASA's Mars Climate Modeling Center. "This is where all the exchanges between the surface and atmosphere happen. This is where the dust is picked up and sent into the atmosphere, where trace gases are mixed, where the modulation of large-scale winds by mountain-valley flows happen. And we just don't have very much data about it."

Kling is partnering with a team of University of Arizona engineers that aims to fill this data gap by designing a motorless sailplane that can soar over the Martian surface for days at a time, using only wind energy for propulsion. Equipped with flight, temperature, and gas sensors as well as cameras, the sailplanes would weigh only 11 lb each. The team details its proposal in a paper published in the journal Aerospace.

The flight of the albatross
Flight on Mars is challenging due to the planet's thin atmosphere, and this is not the first team to try addressing it. Most notably, NASA's Ingenuity is a 4-lb helicopter that landed in Mars' Jezero Crater in 2021. With miniaturized flight technology and a rotor system span of about 4 ft, it's the first device to test powered, controlled flight on another planet. But the solar-powered vehicle can fly for only three minutes at a time, and it reaches heights of just 12 m, or about 39 ft.

"These other technologies have all been very limited by energy," said the paper's first author, Adrien Bouskela, an aerospace engineering doctoral student in UArizona professor Sergey Shkarayev's Micro Air Vehicles Laboratory. "What we're proposing is just using the energy in situ. It's kind of a leap forward in those methods of extending missions. Because the main question is: How can you fly for free? How can you use the wind that's there, the thermal dynamics that are there, to avoid using solar panels and relying on batteries that need to be recharged?"

The Mars sailplanes will contain a custom-designed array of navigation sensors, as well as a camera and temperature and gas sensors to gather information about the Martian atmosphere and landscape. [Credit: University of Arizona College of Engineering]

 

 

 

 

Lightweight, low-cost, wind-powered sailplanes may be the answer. The planes, which have a wingspan of about 11 ft, will use several different flight methods, including simple static soaring when sufficient vertical winds are present. But they can also use a technique called dynamic soaring, which, like an albatross on a long journey, takes advantage of how horizontal wind speed often increases with altitude -- a phenomenon particularly common on Mars.

Dynamic soaring looks something like the S-shaped pattern skiers use to control their descent down a mountain. However, every time the sailplane changes directions, it also begins changing altitude -- and rather than slow the sailplane down, the maneuver helps it gain speed. The planes fly at a slight upward angle into the slow-moving, low-altitude wind. When they reach the faster, high-altitude wind, they turn 180 degrees and let the high-speed wind power them forward at a slight downward angle. When they start to run out of energy from the high-speed wind, they repeat the process, weaving their way forward. With this nimble maneuvering, the sailplanes can continually harvest energy from the atmosphere, flying for hours or even days at a time. This is flying for free.

"It's almost something you have to see it to believe," said paper co-author Jekan Thanga, a UArizona associate professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering.

Current rovers have mostly captured images of Mars' flat, sandy plains -- the only areas where the rovers can safely land. But the sailplanes would be able to explore new areas by taking advantage of how wind patterns shift around geologic formations such as canyons and volcanoes.

"With this platform, you could just fly around and access those really interesting, really cool places," Kling said.

Good things come in small packages
The team proposes sending the sailplanes to Mars as a secondary payload on a larger mission. Thanga is examining how to deploy the sailplanes from the spacecraft into the atmosphere. On the spacecraft, the sailplanes will be packaged in CubeSats, miniature satellites not much larger than a phonebook. Once the CubeSats are launched and the planes released, the planes would either unfold, like origami, or inflate, like high-tech pool floaties, and rigidize at their full size.

The team conducted a tethered launch of an early version of the sailplane, in which it descended slowly to Earth attached to a balloon. [Credit: University of Arizona College of Engineering]

 

 

 

 

The team is also exploring the possibility of a balloon or blimp carrying the sailplanes into the atmosphere. This would slow the sailplanes' descent and allow them to take off when wind conditions are optimal or when they approach a high-interest area. The sailplanes could even potentially redock on the balloon or blimp after a flight and go on to complete multiple missions.

Flight ends, mission continues
After landing on the Martian surface, the planes would continue to relay information about the atmosphere back to the spacecraft, essentially becoming weather stations. Meteorologists can predict weather on Earth with relative accuracy in part because there are weather stations all over our planet that form a network of information, and all the data they gather is continually fed back to predictive models. So, each Mars sailplane that retired from flying -- whether it completed its exploration as planned or something went wrong -- could become another all-important node in this network.

"If we run out of flight energy, or if our inertial sensors suddenly fail for whatever reason, we expect to then keep doing science," Bouskela said. "From the planetary science perspective, the mission continues."

The team has done extensive mathematical modeling for the sailplanes' flight patterns based on Mars climate data, and there's still more research to do about flight trajectories, potential docking systems, and more. This summer, they will test experimental planes at about 15,000 ft above sea level, where Earth's atmosphere is thinner and flight conditions are more akin to those on Mars.

"We can use the Earth as a laboratory for studying flight on Mars," Shkarayev said.

The team ultimately hopes NASA will fund the mission and allow it to "catch a ride" on a large-scale Mars mission already in development. The low-cost nature of the sailplane effort means it could come to fruition relatively quickly, Kling said, perhaps in years rather than the decades needed for a full-scale mission.

Source: University of Arizona College of Engineering

Published August 2022

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