Well, Intelligent Actuator has solved that problem with the Robocylinder series of actuators. Robocylinders are designed to solve the needs of customers who deal with these problems.

Robocylinders are electronic linear actuators that are specifically designed to take the place of a standard air cylinder or rodless cylinder. The inner workings of the actuator use a ballscrew, stepper motor and rotary encoder. The system also uses a basic controller to drive and monitor the actuator.

The best part of the Robocylinder package is how easy the product is to set up and use. After all, Robocylinders weren't designed for customers with advanced motion control experience; they were designed to be used by customers with little or no motion control experience. Setup of the cylinder involves nothing more than connecting the cables to the controller, assigning point/speed/acceleration values to each of 16 or 64 different programmable points, and connecting discreet inputs and outputs to your PLC. Once you do that, Binary input from your PLC drives the controller, and indicates to your PLC when positions are made and complete.

The Robocylinder is designed to be extremely easy to set up, use, program and run. The best way to see this product and experience it firsthand is to contact your salesperson and request a demonstration of the Robocylinder system from Intelligent Actuator.