How does a Linear Actuator work?

Linear actuators work by moving an object or piece of equipment in a straight line, moving an object extraordinarily accurately and repeatably if required. The first reason for designing a linear actuator right into a system is for the necessity to move a payload in a linear fashion reasonably than a rotary one. As most typical electric motors are rotary, a linear actuator is used to transform rotary motion to linear motion.

The electrical motor is generally related to the linear actuator by a flexible coupling or a belt, enabling the motor to be mounted either axially or perpendicular to the linear actuator. Quite a lot of motor sizes will be mounted to those actuators relying on requirements.

Linear actuators have incorporated linear bearings that help the moving payload, as well as rotary bearings that help either the lead screw, ball screw or belt pulleys. This then permits them to operate as ‘stand-alone’ gadgets, making them easy to mount into current machines and eliminating the necessity to design/manufacture very costly custom parts. To extend the load capacity and stability of a linear actuator system, they are often paired up with the payload carried between them, similar to in an XY gantry fashion stage. In this case, a shaft or belt is commonly used to keep the two actuators in sync with each other.

Features of Linear Actuators

Linear Actuators have the following features:

High repeatability

Positioning accuracy

Easy operation

Long life

Easy upkeep or maintenance free

Protection rankings available for some models

Suitable for harsh environments

Compact design

Rugged and reliable

Safe operation

Versatile

Industries and applications for Linear Actuators

Linear Actuators can be used in various applications that require a load to either be lifted, lowered, pushed, pulled, rotated or positioned. Linear Actuators are utilized in industries including:

Packaging

Meals processing

Industrial vehicles

Factory automation

Material dealing with

Clean energy

Printing

Automotive

Machine software

Marine

Aerospace

Defence

Pharmaceutical

Types of Linear Actuators

Picking the right type of linear actuator to your motion application will help you achieve the perfect results. Lead Screw Actuators, Ball Screw Actuators and Belt Actuators are three types of linear actuators that can be used in varied applications to produce motion.

A Lead Screw Actuator makes use of a plain screw/nut arrangement to translate the rotary motion from a motor to linear motion. A manually driven screw or an AC induction motor are essentially the most commonly used strategies to supply the rotary motion, as they’re generally used in low cost and low precision applications. The ability of the actuator to ‘back drive’ is reduced over ball screw actuators as a result of low efficiency of the screw/nut. In some applications, this may be an advantage as it helps to keep the payload stationary whilst not in motion. Applications embrace agricultural equipment and handbook lift systems, the place safety and reliability are more critical than precision and performance.

A Ball Screw Actuator uses a high precision nut with recirculating ball bearings that rotate round a ground screw thread. In principle this is similar to a typical ball race with the load being transmitted by the rolling balls. The significant advantages of this system are high-precision and low friction, giving a really environment friendly technique of changing rotary motion to linear motion. Stepper or servo motors are generally used to produce the rotary motion. Ball screw actuators are well suited to repeatable indexing and fast cyclic applications corresponding to machine tools, scientific devices and medical systems.

Belt actuators work the place a belt is carried between pulleys and connected to the moving carriage, then because the belt rotates the carriage is pulled alongside the actuator. One of many pulleys is driven by a motor which is generally mounted perpendicular to the actuator and coupled utilizing a versatile coupling. They offer a relatively low-cost different, as they inherently have a decrease level of precision. Belt driven linear actuators are very good for lengthy travel and high linear speed applications such as packaging and automated material handling systems.