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Jung: Bishop-Wisecarver currently provides stages, gantries, and XY tables to support the needs and cost constraints of low to highaccuracy applications. With evolving design features, more subassemblies are completed in-house to reduce leadtime and produce high-quality products.

How has the convergence of ISO, DIN, and JIS standards affected OEMs?

Orozco: It’s di cult to assimilate change, especially when industry standards have been established for a long time. Some of these standards (depending on the feature or geometry) have similar specifications varying in items, such as tolerance or load capacity di erences for ballscrews. Customers and manufacturers have had to update processes; change quality inspection routines; and adjust machine assemblies to accommodate updated standards. Over the long term, universal standards will benefi t the industry and customers.

Jung: There’s been increased demand for components that conform to di erent materials standards. While having suppliers globally, conforming to ISO, DIN, and JIS standards hasn’t been an issue. Although the three standards have very similar requirements, there are some di erences — and we understand the di erences to provide optimal solutions for our customers.

What value-add services do you provide?

Sharkey: We’ve invested heavily in online, free engineering productivity tools and our customer solutions center. OEMs are under pressure to become more e cient and hold down costs, and suppliers help the OEMs along two important tracks. First, suppliers must continually improve product capabilities and features, such as assured interoperability, small size, and energy e ciency. Second, suppliers must decrease engineering and assembly time.

Rice: For OEMs looking for XY tables and Cartesian robots, Festo has developed an online engineering tool, Handling Guide Online, that compresses the design process from an industry-standard two weeks down to 20 minutes. At the end of the Handling Guide Online session, the OEM receives a 3D CAD drawing that enables machine design to continue while the unit is being kitted, assembled, and tested. The OEM receives a bill of materials, an estimated delivery date, and a quote. Handling Guide Online lowers internal costs and makes the OEM more competitive.

Khetan: We don’t o er engineering services per se, but during detailed engineer-to-engineer discussions with mature customers about new or ongoing programs, we’ve provided engineering support and specialized services to better understand and complement the customer’s design.

Lackey: Over the last few years, there’s been a growing need for completely engineered linear solutions. As the goal is to keep profi tability up and costs down, we see many companies reducing or minimizing design and electrical engineer headcounts … and here, our open-market tools can help minimize overhead.

For example, customers can download LinSelect, our free, easy-to-use sizing software, to input application parameters and find multiple solutions. The software sizes individual axes, multi-axis gantry systems, and electromechanical presses, and the outputs will also size motor and drive needs. With a couple of clicks of the mouse, engineers get downloadable models. Some of these standard catalog products include linear modules, connection bracketry, motors, drives, cables, industrial PLCs, and HTML-based drag-and-drop programming software with our Smart Mechatronics product. Customers who use Smart Mechatronics solutions keep overhead down by minimizing the need for design and electrical engineers.

Sharkey: For complex linear-actuated Cartesian systems that fall outside of the Handling Guide Online parameters, the Festo customer solutions center at our Mason, Ohio Global Production Center works with customers to design and build cartesian subassembly. Customer solutions also designs and assembles the gantry’s control cabinet for plug-and-play setup and function block programming. With our Electric Motion Sizing software and Automation Suite software, mechanical engineers can select all motion components knowing they’re interoperable. The sizing tool file gives the purchasing agent a complete bill of materials that eliminates potential order errors. And the controls engineer receives a file that contains all operational parameters to commission the unit directly on the commissioning software, thus saving precious time.

Read the rest of our 14 experts’ insights into linear-motion trends by visiting linearmotiontips.com and searching on Andaya. DW

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