One of the main challenges facing industrial metrology equipment manufacturers is maintaining smooth velocity and position control. Celera Motion aided one customer in solving this problem by developing a custom configured Mercury™ 1540P digital encoder, ultimately providing precise control using smaller components.

The Challenge

An industrial metrology equipment manufacturer was designing a high precision, portable, laser based scanning system. It featured a scan mirror spinning rapidly in one axis and rotating slowly in another to map out a high resolution topographical dataset. To achieve their needs system portability and to capture extremely accurate and precise data, they required encoders and motors that were light weight, compact and could provide very smooth position and velocity control.

The Solution

The compact Mercury 1540P digital incremental encoder with a custom flex cable was paired with a 57mm diameter grating disk to provide 19 µrad resolution feedback in a low profile and cost-effective solution. The total encoder height is only 10.2mm and weighs approximately 14g. Additionally, a 43mm diameter frameless Omni Series motor was incorporated into the device which reduced their previously bulky motor stack height to a mere 6 mm and provided the smoothest motion possible from direct drive motors.

The Benefit

MicroE’s compact Mercury Series encoder and Omni Series frameless motor technologies were customized to suit the customer’s exact dimensional and performance requirements. They were combined to provide the customer the precision, speed and portability their design demanded.

Specifications

Sensor Dimensions15.2x 8.8 x 5.6mm
InterfaceDigital A-quad-B with index
Grating Dimensions57 OD x 25 ID x 2.29mm
Grating Period20 µm
System Resolution19 µrad
Maximum Speed2637 RPM
Sensor Weight2.6g
Continuous Torqueup to 5.9Nm
Peak Torqueup to 17.7Nm
Diameter (Stator OD)45 to 165mm
Through Hole (Rotor ID)32 to 120mm
Maximum Speedup to 5,000 rpm