Encoders Ensure The Exact Setting Of Electric Drives

Lock GmbH from Ertingen in Swabia has been manufacturing manual and electric drives for over 170 years, which the company sells worldwide. The family business grew up with drives for ventilation and shading elements in agriculture and horticulture. The drives are also used on roofs and facades of large buildings, such as B. at the halls of the exhibition center in Hanover. In recent years, the Swabians have also gained a foothold in industrial applications in plant construction.

Precise positioning is important

Lock has been working closely with Megatron GmbH & Co. KG for over 30 years. Their position indicators in the geared motors of the rack and pinion drives from Lock ensure, among other things, that loads can be lifted to exactly the right place or that machines and devices can be precisely positioned.

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Meeting Lock's requirements is often a technical challenge, because the limited installation space in the drives requires compact sensors and optimized solutions for assembly and wiring. In order to meet these requirements, Megatron will tailor the respective product solutions in terms of their function, design and the respective mechanical and electrical interface. "When selecting and modifying the rotary encoders, we focus solely on the application," says Georg Ackermann, product manager for angle and displacement sensors at Megatron.

Customized

In the case of Lock, Megatron has equipped the multiturn potentiometers used with a terminal strip for easy snap-in installation. Lock installs the precision potentiometers in its EWA and EZW electric drives, which are used in many areas: in agriculture and horticulture as well as on large building facades, they are responsible for adjusting ventilation and shading elements, for example, in malting plants or industrial ovens the safe movement of loads.

Another area of ​​application for the lock drives is the precast concrete industry, because here too, work must be carried out precisely. The concrete is leveled in the formwork with a so-called trowel before it hardens. The height is adjusted using a dirt-resistant EZW electric rack drive, which includes a Megatron encoder for exact positioning. This ensures that the concrete parts have a uniform, even surface. This is essential, especially in the production of paintable and wallpaperable concrete parts.

Different sensors in use

Lock uses various Megatron angle sensor series, including the AL17, for its EWA 10-16 and EZW series electric drives. The AL17 is a multi-turn multi-turn potentiometer with electrical rotation angles of 1080 ° (three coils), 1800 ° (five coils) and 3600 ° (ten coils). The multiturn potentiometer has a 22 mm housing. Optionally, a rear shaft and an integrated slip clutch can also be selected, which protects the sensor from damage by driving over the end stops. The potentiometer is also available in a tandem or multi-speed version and in protection class IP54. The version with ten coils has a service life of 106 revolutions.

Since the beginning of 2016, Lock has also been offering the PAR 10 position indicator for its electric drives, which is based on the ETA25PM angle sensor from Megatron and works more precisely than the previous model PAR 06. The ETA25PM is a multi-turn Hall encoder with an analog interface. The new multiturn sensor in a compact 25 mm housing has optimally closed the price-performance gap between potentiometers and contactless compact encoders and can be quickly and precisely adapted to the mechanics of the application.

Content of the article:

• Page 1: Encoders ensure the exact setting of electric drives
• Page 2: Quickly adjust the zero point

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