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Flexible planetary gearheads: Quiet, extremely robust

FAULHABER GPT gearheads for miniature and micro motors deliver high power density, exceptional flexibility, and excellent cost efficiency. Designed for seamless integration with diverse motors and encoders, these compact planetary drives feature hardened stainless steel components that reliably withstand extreme torques and abrupt load changes. Offered in standard, low-noise, and high-torque variants, they ensure precise, durable performance across wide operating temperature ranges.
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What is a low-waving linear motion guide?

If you are having a problem with your linear guides not always staying perfectly straight during use, it may be due to a phenomenon called waving -- a problem that is particularly critical in high-precision markets such as semiconductor and LCD equipment-related applications or machine tools. Thankfully, THK has an answer.
Read the full article.

NORD serves up sweet energy and cost savings for industrial bakeries

NORD DRIVE-SYSTEMS offers robust, highly configurable drive solutions designed to optimize efficiency, ensure hygiene, and reduce the TCO for automated bakery systems. From industrial-scale mixing and portioning to baking, cooling, and packaging, NORD's modular product portfolio delivers precise, reliable performance across every stage of production.
Read the full article. You may learn something even if you are not in the baking industry.

Key considerations for battery-powered motors

Battery-powered motor applications require careful design considerations to pair motor performance and power consumption profiles in concert with the correct battery type. This Power Electric article covers power requirements, performance considerations, and battery choices to assist you in selecting an efficient motor and a battery with the appropriate capacity. Good technical info.
Read the Power Electric technical article.

Driving next-gen pump and fan applications: Sinamics G210X

The Sinamics G210X is a new frequency converter for advanced pump, fan, and compressor applications, combining easy engineering with robust design. Integrated functions, seamless TIA Portal integration, and a web server reduce PLC effort to speed up commissioning, operation, and diagnostics. IP55 protection, 3C3 coating, and S2 system redundancy ensure reliable operation in demanding environments.
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New Exlar food-grade actuator

Curtiss-Wright's Actuation Division has expanded its Exlar line with hygienic electric actuators using FDA-approved materials and finishes. Designed for food, beverage, packaging, and pharmaceutical automation, the new GTF unit enables economical USDA, 3-A, BISSC, and EHEDG certification. Its IP69K washdown option, inverted roller screw, and compact servo-driven design deliver reliable, high-performance motion for hygienic machinery.
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New Texas conveyor system is 42 miles long!

SEW-EURODRIVE is helping power one of the most ambitious bulk material handling projects in North America through its contribution to the Dune Express conveyor system, a record-setting 42-mile single-flight conveyor across the Permian Basin.
Read the full article.

Compact servo drives for harsh environs

Built on Copley's proven NanoPlus platform, the compact, 1.2-oz R-Series Nano servo drives withstand extreme temperatures, vibration, shock, and humidity. Available in R47 (CANopen) and R48 (EtherCAT) models, they suit space-constrained, harsh environments such as mil/aero robotics and gimbals. This commercial off-the-shelf series provides a hardened option without defense-specific development lead times.
Learn more from Copley Controls.

Hybrid actuator with force up to 14,726 lb

Kyntronics' new all-electric HyCore hybrid actuator is a compact, low-cost alternative to traditional hydraulic, pneumatic, and electro-mechanical systems. Engineered for OEMs, it delivers up to 14,726 lb of force. The self-contained design eliminates leaks and wear, providing precise control, shock-load tolerance, and high efficiency. It simplifies integration and lowers operating costs for mobile equipment, packaging, assembly automation, and more.
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SDP/SI motion products: Best sellers

SDP/SI's best sellers aren't just popular -- they're proven. These are the motion components their customers return to time and again for precision, reliability, and unbeatable value. From belts and pulleys to gears, bearings, and couplings, each product has earned its place through consistent performance in real-world applications.
Learn more and see the full products list.

Automated part grinding and finishing in one unit!

Grinding large fabrications is a classic dull, dirty, and dangerous task perfectly suited for automation, yet traditional setups require multiple costly robots. At Automate 2026, Güdel debuted a single-robot solution that utilizes two extra degrees of freedom to finish massive surfaces without complex part repositioning.
Read the full article.

Rockford RBS ball screws and nuts now available

Automation-Direct now offers US-manufactured RBS ball screws and nuts for precise linear motion in OEM and maintenance applications. Achieving over 90% efficiency, they feature low friction, high accuracy, and minimal wear. Available in various diameters, lengths, and leads, these precision-matched components handle axial loads with minimal backlash, providing a dependable solution that reduces maintenance and extends operational life. Great prices too.
Learn more.

Next-gen conveyor transports 3,000-kg payloads

Building on its established portfolio of twin-strand conveyors that are currently used in a variety of industry verticals, Bosch Rexroth is introducing the TS 7plus transfer system, which is the world's first freely configurable, fully electric conveyance solution to workpieces weighing up to 3,000 kg. TS 7plus transports material via conveyor rollers on freely configurable modular sections with lift/transverse, rotary, and positioning units, as well as stop gates. Great for automotive, battery, aerospace/defense, and more.
Learn more.

Next-generation air bearing linear slide

The A-123 noncontact nanoposi-tioning stage integrates a brushless motor, air bearings, and a 1-nm encoder, supporting 40-kg payloads over 750-mm travel. Its pressurized air film eliminates the friction, wear, and vibration of mechanical stages, ensuring zero particle generation. Customizable with options such as granite bases and isolation systems, it is ideal for semiconductor metrology, inspection, photonics, and more.
Learn more.

How to implement redundancy in stepper motors

Some of the recent research activities in the area of electric motor drives for safety-critical applications (such as aerospace and nuclear power plants) are focused on looking at various fault-tolerant motor and drive topologies. After discussing different solutions, this article focuses on a miniature permanent magnet (PM) stepper motor design that provides increased redundancy.
Read this informative FAULHABER article.

U.S. Navy perfecting quantum inertial navigation to use when GPS is unavailable

By Nicholas E. M. Pasquini, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory

U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) researchers have developed a patent-pending Continuous 3D-Cooled Atom Beam Interferometer derived from a patented cold and continuous beam of atoms to explore atom-interferometry-based inertial measurement systems as a path to reduce drift in Naval navigation systems.

Inertial navigation is a self-contained navigation technique in which measurements provided by accelerometers and gyroscopes are used to track the position and orientation of an object relative to a known starting point, orientation, and velocity. Quantum inertial navigation is a new field of research and development that can increase inertial measurement accuracy by orders of magnitude.

"Our interferometer operates in a different regime than most other modern implementations of an atom interferometer," said Jonathan Kwolek, Ph.D., a research physicist from the NRL Quantum Optics Section within the Optical Sciences Division. "By operating with cold, continuous atoms, we have opened the door to a number of advantages as well as novel measurement techniques. Ultimately, we would like to use this technology to improve inertial navigation systems, thus reducing our reliance on GPS."

Jonathan Kwolek, Ph.D., a research physicist from the NRL Quantum Optics Section, attaches fiber-optic cables to deliver light into the compact laser-delivery system, which is carefully aligned around a custom vacuum cell in the NRL Atom Interferometry Lab. The apparatus will generate a cold, continuous atomic beam for a larger vacuum chamber to address Navy craft inertial navigation challenges. [Credit: U.S. Navy photo by Jonathan Steffen]

 

 

 

 

Enabled by the unique properties of the atom source, the Continuous 3D-Cooled Atom Beam Interferometer exhibits promising measurement characteristics like high measurement contrast, low noise, and improved handling of variations in the sensor's environment. This technology wields the potential to provide the Navy with the ability to operate in GPS-denied environments and overcome limitations to the accuracy of GPS.

Depending on the measurement platform, errors in the location estimation will accumulate and result in loss of accurate position information. Current commercially available inertial navigation systems, for example, can navigate with an error accumulation of roughly one nautical mile over 360 hours. NRL intends to develop new technologies to extend that time such that navigational drift does not limit mission duration.

"The field of inertial navigation aims to provide navigation information anywhere GPS is unavailable," said NRL Associate Director of Research for Systems Dr. Gerald Borsuk. "The advent of atom interferometry allows for a novel approach in inertial sensing, which has the potential to address some of the deficiencies in current state-of-the-art technologies."

GPS has become a backbone to the functionality of both our civilian and military world, providing high-accuracy distributed position and timing information anywhere in the world. However, there are certain battlespace environments in which GPS cannot function, such as under water or in space, as well as an increasing threat to GPS availability in the form of jamming, spoofing, or anti-satellite warfare.

"In an ideal world, we hedge against loss of conventional navigation by making the best inertial navigators we can," Kwolek said. "This is to ensure that a loss of GPS doesn't allow our ships to become lost in the middle of enemy territory."

Why use atom interferometers?
Interferometers are devices that extract information from interference using coherent waves. This class of device is widely used for the precise measurements of displacements, refractive index changes, and surface topologies. Inertial navigation is used in a wide range of applications including the navigation of aircraft, tactical and strategic missiles, spacecraft, submarines, and ships.

Atomic physics offers a unique toolkit for measuring with extreme precision. Atom interferometry is a method within atomic physics in which quantum interference of atomic matter waves is used to measure extremely precise changes in environmental conditions, such as fields or inertial forces.

"Performing atomic inertial measurements as opposed to a classical measurement gives different error dependencies," Kwolek said. "We predict that, if done carefully, atomic interferometers will exhibit better long-term noise behavior and accuracy than current leading technologies. Translated to the world of inertial navigation, this means keeping your location fix for longer, providing more operational flexibility."

Atom interferometers can also be used to discipline another sensor, much like how clocks are disciplined to GPS. This combination of an interferometer with a co-sensor can enable interferometers to realize a benefit in a real-world measurement scenario.

"This is by no means a complete solution," Kwolek said. "There are tradeoffs to operating an atomic interferometer, for example, the enhanced sensitivity correlates to worse dynamic range. We are exploring multiple avenues to solving this problem including co-sensor implementation or alternative cold-atom techniques."

This quantum optics research is sponsored by the NRL Base Program and the Office of Naval Research.

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 states that quantum technology is approaching a tipping point that will determine how quickly it can make an impact. If the United States can stay on pace, many important outcomes for the Department of Defense (DOD) can be realized including robust position, navigation, and timing for DOD freedom of operations with precision strike even with contests in spectrum, space, or cyber operations.

A Navy less reliant on GPS
NRL has delivered navigation solutions to the fleet since its inception, but a breakthrough occurred in the 1960s with the invention of GPS.

NRL launched TIMATION I on May 31, 1967, and TIMATION II on August 30, 1969. TIMATION I demonstrated that a surface vessel could be positioned to within two-tenths of a nautical mile and an aircraft to within three-tenths of a nautical mile using range measurements from a time-synchronized satellite.

While initially designed for use by the military, GPS has been adapted for civilian navigation needs ranging from commercial aviation to portable handheld and wristwatch-type devices. Today, GPS is a constellation of 32 Earth-orbiting satellites providing precise navigation and timing data to military and civilian end-users around the globe. Despite decades of development of GPS, optimized inertial navigation systems afford the Navy the ability to mitigate risk against becoming completely reliant on GPS.

"In the modern era, NRL is one of several research organizations addressing naval inertial navigation challenges," said Adam Black, Ph.D., NRL Quantum Optics Section Head. "The lab is taking advantage of advanced atomic and optical techniques to invent new architectures for inertial measurement that promise accurate navigation of dynamic Navy platforms."

Published August 2024

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