Modeling and Experimental Verification of a Tubular Actuator for 20-g Acceleration in a Pick-and-Place Application

This paper presents the modeling and the experimental verification of a tubular actuator for a pick-and-place application. To increase the throughput of a placement robot for printed circuit boards, a very fast linear motion is required. A moving-magnet tubular actuator with axially magnetized magnets is selected. Using a semianalytical magnetic field model coupled to a thermal one, a design is created that achieves a translator acceleration of 20 g. A prototype of the designed actuator is built and coupled with a Simulink dSpace system to perform extensive measurements in order to validate the models and investigate the achievable acceleration within a predetermined motion profile. The electromotive force is measured, and the disturbance forces are identified. The position error is measured during the motion profile with an acceleration of 20 g and a stroke of 30 mm. Furthermore, thermal measurements are performed to check the achievable duty cycle. The built design shows good agreement with the models, and the specified acceleration of 20 g is achieved.