THIS WEEK IN AUTOMATION: Manipulators, Actuators and More

New products from Air Technical Industries, AutomationDirect, EVT, Festo and Geoforce.

Articulating Manipulator with Gripper from Air Technical Industries

Air Technical Industries (ATI) has developed a new five-axis tool to handle and articulate large items in any position needed.

The five axes lift, extend, pitch, roll and grip up to 2000 lbs and lift up to 12 ft. from ground level.

The addition of available yaw axis as well as powered mast rotation offers up to seven total functions. The manipulator with the gripper is installed on ATI’s Reversible Boom Crane (RBC-6000-SPBW).  This unit is self propelled with variable speed control and 90° steering capability to the left or right.

All the axes of the articularm are hydraulically actuated. The pitch axis has a range of 130°, roll axis is 180° and yaw axis is 90° to the left and 90° to the right – parallel to the boom.  The power source is 24 volts DC battery powered.

A variety of grippers are available.  The one featured in the picture has parallel flat jaws with a minimum opening of 8” and maximum opening of 16”.  The most popular gripper is the round jaws to grab and hold cylindrical items.

The controls are remote pendant push button so that the operator can be close to the item lifted in order to closely monitor the articulation for precise positioning.

This is an ideal tool for ergonomic handling and safety to avoid using the wrong equipment in a make shift application.  It takes the load off the operator’s back and uses the finger tip push button control in handling heavy objects effectively.

For more information, visit www.airtechnical.com.

Limit Alarm Modules from AutomationDirect

AutomationDirect’s new FC-series analog to relay limit alarm modules are field configurable for a variety of alarm and control applications.

Modules are available with two or four SPDT relay outputs, can be powered by 24VAC or 24VDC and accept input signals of 0-15V, 0-30V, or 0-20mA.

Configuration and trip/release point programming is accomplished with DIP Switches, and a single programming pushbutton.

LED’s provide indication of operating status and are used during the trip/release point programming.

Modules can be 35mm DIN rail or side mounted. Also available are replacement terminal blocks in packages of 5 and 14.

For more information, visit www.automationdirect.com.

EyeSens Series ZQ Vision Sensors from EVT

EVT released the EyeSens series ZQ vision sensors. The sensors are much smaller than the usual EyeSens sensor.

Due to the powerful ZYNQ processor with dual Core ARM, the EyeSens ZQ can solve image processing tasks faster than common vision sensors. Suitable applications would be for example:

  • Code reading (DMC, QR, Barcode)
  • OCR/ OCV
  • Color Inspection
  • Measurement Technology
  • Pattern Matching / Contour Matching for Robot Vision
  • Counting Objects

Due to the small size, light weight and integrated lighting, the EyeSens ZQ is suited for areas where only little space is available. The camera offers the option with an integrated FPGA, for the fast preprocessing of image information.

With the drag-and-drop graphical user interface, there are no programming skills needed. Thus the vision sensor platform is applicable for various image processing tasks. 

For more information, visit www.evt-web.com.

New Quarter-Turn Actuator DFPD from Festo

The new quarter-turn actuator DFPD from Festo offers a rack and pinion combination for meeting many requirements in the process industry.

The DFPD’s modern, simple and compact design can be used with ball valves, shut off valves or air dampers in the chemical, pharmaceutical or beverage industry or for water treatment and other areas of process automation.

The single-acting version of this new quarter turn actuator offers an optimised spring design that can be configured in increments of 0.5 bar for more efficient use. With the nine different spring combinations, the quarter turn actuator DFPD meets the most precise operating pressure requirements of between 2 and 6 bar. The rotation angle for standard sizes is up to 90° and for the sizes 40, 120, 240 and 480 it rises to 180°.

The basic version of the DFPD is suitable for temperatures between -20 and +80 C. The low-temperature variant is designed for arctic regions and covers a temperature range of -50 C to +60 C. The high-temperature variant can be used at temperatures of between 0 C and +150 C.

With its versatile and corrosion-resistant surface coatings, the actuator can also be reliably and flexibly used in harsh conditions. It can be mounted anywhere and the end positions can be adjusted by ± 5° at both ends, ensuring high flexibility during operation.

In combination with the CMSX positioner, it is ideally suited for the analogue control of quarter-turn actuators, e.g. in dosing tasks.

Furthermore, the sensor boxes SRBC/SRBE/SRBG enable simple digital control and full position sensing outdoors, as well as in potentially explosive environments.

The NAMUR valves VSNC are certified worldwide in accordance with all the current standards. For safety-oriented applications, the robust pilot valves VOFC and VOFD are valuable additions. The solenoid valves can be widely used and meet the highest safety standards (up to SIL3, explosion protection).

For more more information, visit www.festo.com.

Ruggedized GPS Tracking Devices from Geoforce

Geoforce, a provider of global traceability solutions for field equipment, announced the commercial availability of its next generation GTx family of satellite-based, battery-powered GPS equipment tracking devices.

The GTx family currently includes:

—  The GT1 Global Asset Tracker – a ruggedized, intrinsically safe tracking device with IECEX/ATEX Zone 0 certification, which allows it to operate safely for extended periods in explosive and other extreme environments;
—  The GT0 Compact Asset Tracker – the world’s smallest industrial grade GPS tracker.

Significant improvements in embedded power management have increased battery life even in the harshest environments.

Embedded batteries eliminate the hassle of field replacement and create a “set-and-forget” customer experience with no maintenance for up to six years, depending on usage profile and operating environment.

The devices also support Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE 4) interface to enable third party sensors and interaction with mobile devices.

For more information, visit www.geoforce.com.