STANDARD STAINLESS STEEL GUIDE CHOSEN FOR SLIP RING INDUCTION HEATING
22/08/2011 HepcoMotion
HepcoMotion® attaches a great deal of importance to including stainless steel as a standard offering across its entire range of linear motion systems. UtiliTrak® from Bishop-Wisecarver, a long-standing and popular product in its programme, is no exception to this rule and its ready availability in stainless steel proved the perfect linear solution for Lincolnshire based BGB Innovation.BGB Innovation is divided into three industry brands that respectively design, manufacture and market slip ring systems, underwater lighting and camera solutions and wireless Ethernet bridge systems. It was for the production of slip rings for the wind turbine industry that BGB Engineering specified the UtiliTrak® system from HepcoMotion®.
The slip rings comprise three bronze rings, each of which needs a different length termination riser brazed onto them. BGB Engineering's Product Development Engineer, Richard Driver, was charged with the task of developing a special purpose machine to optimise the process.
He designed a universal machine that would assemble and braze all three rings in a range of types in a single machine cycle. UtiliTrak® was chosen as the guideway on which dedicated fixtures would slide the rings along the main table to position them sequentially in the assembly-, heating- and cooling areas of the machine.
"The main criteria in our choice of UtiliTrak® for this operation is that it had to be non ferrous as we use induction heating to braze the rings," Richard Driver explained. "Anything ferrous that enters the induction field would heat up very quickly and could possibly melt as the field current required to braze copper alloys is far greater than that used for ferrous metals.
BGB Engineering therefore chose a pair of stainless steel UtiliTrak® linear guides for this element of the application, components that were supplied ex-stock from the HepcoMotion® standard range. Each stainless steel linear guide was equipped with two, three-wheel carriage assemblies onto which the fixture is mounted in parallel.
The UtiliTrak® system is designed for applications where low cost, easy installation and minimal maintenance requirements are the primary objectives. Constructed with DualVee Motion Technology®, it often provides a cost-effective alternative to recirculating ball guide systems that require a considerable amount of surface preparation, a factor that adds to the total installed cost.
The aluminium version of UtiliTrak® was also chosen by BGB Engineering for another part of the slip ring induction brazing machine. Two of these linear guides, set in parallel, are responsible for the linear positioning of the work head with integral induction coil over the ring and riser assembly. As these guides are located outside the induction field, the lower cost aluminium UtiliTrak® is ideally suited to the task.
Richard Driver concludes, "For us the smooth running, anti-friction movement provided by UtiliTrak® is its main performance quality as the fixtures need to be moved along the rail with a minimum of force."
For further information, please contact:
HepcoMotion
Lower Moor Business Park
Tiverton Way
Tiverton
Devon
EX16 6TG
Tel: +44 (0)1884 243400
Fax: +44 (0)1884 243399
Web: www.hepcomotion.com
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