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, very fast linear motion is required. A moving magnet tubular actuator with axially magnetized magnets is selected. Using a semi-analytical magnetic field description coupled to thermal models, a design is created that potentially could achieve 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 to validate the models and investigate the achievable acceleration within a pre-determined motion profile. The electro-motive 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.