Hi mechatronics fans!

Welcome to this new post in our Sinadrives blog.

March 2023

Today we’re going to discuss motion and position control applications in dirty environments. What’s involved? How can we minimise failures and increase the lifetime of linear motor positioning systems?

Only a handful of workplaces where applications are used (basically: laboratory, packaging and semiconductor manufacturing facilities) can be considered clean environments. Most other workplaces contain contaminants of one sort or another that can have a negative impact on the performance of machinery components.

The main contaminants are the myriad solid and liquid elements present in industrial processes.

Particles of this type are often generated in applications such as machine tooling, machining, grinding, milling, welding (welding spatter), etc. They tend to create problems for linear guides, linear motors and encoders. Therefore, these elements must be fully protected.

Furthermore, most machine tooling applications involve the presence of coolant and oil, which means that seals, guards, wipers, bellows and other protective elements are required.

In wood applications, such as cutting or machining, a very fine sawdust is generated that adversely affects linear guides and encoders. To deal with this problem, we can offer solutions with magnetic and inductive encoders and linear guides with special wipers. For the linear motor, sawdust is not a major problem.

In food industry applications, the dust generated in the production of bread, baked goods, powdered milk, baby food, animal feed, coffee, etc. has a very negative impact on components, especially linear guides and encoders.
Flour in particular, in contact with water, forms a paste which, once dry, becomes extremely hard and abrasive. Coffee powder is also highly abrasive. Powdered milks, flour or baby food in contact with oil (any greased element in the machine) dry out the grease on the surface of the element. In other words, the frequency of maintenance and greasing operations must be monitored.
For these types of applications, we can supply suitable components with the corresponding protective elements, along with special greases suitable for the food industry.

In most food industry applications, cleaning processes involve high-precision cleaning guns, detergents, caustic soda, etc. Moreover, cleaning with caustic soda at high temperatures leads to the corrosion of aluminium parts. This means that these particular parts must be made out of stainless steel or specially treated steels.

For machinery manufacturers, we offer various solutions to protect the vital components of the linear module from dirt, such as rigid covers, flexible covers or bellows.

In each case, various solutions are available depending on the type of application or machine and the work environment.

If you have an application in which you’re keen to improve the performance of your machine, be it in terms of speed, dynamics, precision or simply reducing maintenance needs, please contact us.

Our specialists in Direct Drive technology and Linear Modules with linear motor technology will be happy to advise you free of charge.

Draw your own conclusions. Decide which innovation you want to implement in your machine to be competitive. We can help you.

Your SINADRIVES Team.