New Custom Rotary Stages with Large Aperture based on Air Bearings

(Nanowerk News) PI (Physik Instrumente), a leader in precision motion control and nanopositioning solutions, announces a new large motorized rotary air bearing added to its existing families of PIglide air bearing rotary stages.
A-688, Custom Rotary Air Bearing, with Large Aperture
A-688, Custom Rotary Air Bearing, with Large Aperture.

Why Air Bearings

Air-bearings have no rolling or sliding elements and deliver frictionless, non-contact motion, resulting in negligible reversal error, better flatness, and minimal wobble and eccentricity. All these are ideal prerequisites for applications such as inspection and metrology, calibration, and scanning of high-end parts (i.e., infrared and precision optics, turbine blades, shafts and bearings) in industries like aerospace, aircraft, automotive, semiconductors, and photonics.

Nanopositioning in Any Aspect

Air bearings replace mechanical contact by a thin film of air which is completely frictionless, resulting in no breakaway stiction or drag friction during operation. Featuring high performance, low-cogging frameless slotless torque motors and optical encoders, these stages can be used in any orientation. The A-688 is customizable with options to create a solution for point-to-point indexing or constant velocity scanning. Coupled with no required maintenance or lubrication, these rotary positioners have a virtually unlimited life.
Watch A-688 Application Video

Features & Advantages

  • – ∅260mm clear aperture
  • – 77kg load capacity
  • – 0.0015µrad max. resolution
  • – 500 RPM max. Flatness/Eccentricity < 175/300nm
  • – Wobble: < 1µrad
  • – Direct drive
  • Specifications, Datasheets, More Information
    PI’s Air Bearing Design & Manufacturing Operation Video

    Substantial Design and Manufacturing Experience, Standard and Custom Systems

    PI designs and manufactures all air bearing products in the USA. PI’s engineering team has hundreds of man years of air bearing design and manufacturing experience. In addition to customized systems for OEMs, PI offers a substantial standard product line of air bearing stages that includes motorized and non-motorized, linear, rotary, spherical, X/XY, voice coil, compact, and large scale systems, as a complement to its existing comprehensive range of piezo nano positioning stages, traditional motorized positioners, and hexapod 6-axis parallel positioning systems. The extreme depth and breadth of motion technologies puts PI in the unique position to cover the whole motion range from finger-tip sized nano-positioners to large scale stages with long travel ranges, through a plethora of different drives and guiding systems that can be tailored to meet the needs of an OEM or customer.

    Working with You

    PI’s in-house engineered systems and components have enabled customers around the world to increase their productivity and technological advantage for 5 decades. With a large basis of standard precision motion products and proven methodologies, PI can quickly modify existing designs or provide a fully customized OEM solution to fit the exact requirements of the application.

    About PI

    PI is a privately held company that designs and manufactures world-class precision motion and automation systems including air bearings, hexapods and piezo drives at locations in North America, Europe, and Asia. The company was founded 5 decades ago and today employs more than 1300 people worldwide. PI’s customers are leaders in high-tech industries and research institutes in fields such as photonics, life-sciences, semiconductors and aerospace.
    Source: PI (press release)
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