Design of a high-speed, short-stroke xy-stage with counterbalance mechanisms

In many cases, the moving speed of xy-stages influences the productivity of industrial machines; thus, it is very important to develop high speed xy-stages. This paper presents a high-speed/short-stroke xy-stage mechanism, which is used on a long-stroke stage and which performs high-speed xy-motions in a short range. To reduce the weight of the moving part, the proposed xy-stage transfers the motion of two actuators to the stage through two perpendicularly-installed linear motion guides. The dump force applied to the base frame is also greatly reduced by adding the counterbalance mechanism. A prototype design and its simulation results are presented.