If you look at their technical data you can see the cooling rates at still air. My previous response was based on Dynalloy Flexinol wires. Jason RE: Looking for a miniature actuator israelkk (Aerospace) 4 May 04 15:30 I've just received in some Flexinol NiTi ( ) muscle wire that I'm going to be experimenting with. I've contacted a couple SMA actuator companies, but I was told by one that their SMA was not right for my application. I could probably squeeze that in, but I have other tradeoffs to consider such as cooling time. My understanding of SMA's is to get a long cycle life (in the millions) the SMA can only be elongated by 4% of its length. In fact, it may not be feasible, as the customer has already had designs from internally and other companies that won't fit into their size profile. I can then tell the customer I have option a but I need x, or I have option b but I need y, or sorry we can't do it. Either way, I'm just trying to find some options for actuators, understanding that I may not get a perfect fit. However, the 2 amps, will be a peak, and cycled, not constant. This is probably peak ampacity, not constant ampacity. I got the 2 amps from a spec on 26 awg ribbion cable that rates ampacity to 3 amps. It will essentially be a custom version of our hand tool, but customization of our standard tools is a large part of our business. Our tool will be modified by removing the handle portion. The upper tool has unlimited room above for mounting an actuator, but the lower tool has near zero room below and only about 6mm (.25') above. With other constraint it only leaves the size profile I mentioned for the lower tool. I will have to check out toy motors, do you have a recommendation on a source.Īlthough our tools can be hand-operated, the customer wants two of them mounted at a 10 mm vertical distance. I have asked if they would plumb the existing line to house air, but they said they cannot (or will not). I do not have info yet on flow rate of the vacuum line. Ideally though we would have at least a 1 million cycle life. I would like to have a cycle life in the millions, but I may be able to lower that, if I can make the mechanism cheap enough to sell it as a consumable/replaceble item. RE: Looking for a miniature actuator GregLocock (Automotive) 3 May 04 21:02Ĭycle life is a good question. Response time (approximation only): Actuation/release time is less the. The force should range from 1.5 to 2 pound-force (again the more the better). 25', the max width is 1' (I have a wider cross-section than originally thought), and the max length is 3' (the smaller the better). So here's a little refinement of the spec: I know the max height is.

Therefore, I'm trying to find out if there are a few possible actuators that would fit within the loose specs I've given. With regard to the ambiguity of the spec, I am trying to determine whether or not it is feasible for our company to design this tool. I don't have specifics on the power supply or cable, but let's say 2 amps are available and the cable can handle that ampacity. The electrical is 12 volts and comes from a 26 AWG ribbon cable.

They have very little room for an actuator and only a vacuum line or electrical. Basically they want to take one of our hand tools and automate it with some sort of actuator. We make a couple different automated machines, but what we're known for is the hand-held tools.Ī company that makes SCARA robots needs a special end-effector for their machine and they are talking to us about making this end-effector for them. My company makes tools (mostly manual/hand-held tools) for handling semiconductor wafers. Let me give a little more detail on this project:

Finally, the gearbox, or leadscrews I think would be too big for the size constraints. The peizo actuators look interesting, but the largest stroke I've seem is 300 micro meters (.01'). I cannot find a solenoid that meets both the size and force requirements. I'm waiting for return calls from SMC and Clippard. Festo has good air cylinders, but according to their tech, will not work with vacuum. I've checked out many of the suggestions.

Piezo actuator customized