HEIDENHAIN KCI 120 Dplus: New Possibilities for Advanced Robotics

The HEIDENHAIN KCI 120 Dplus dual encoder combines motor feedback and position measurement in one encoder, compensating for design-related inaccuracies of highly mobile and dynamic robots. For its dual functionality, it has a central scanning unit and two separate graduated circuits. As a result, it offers compact dimensions and can be integrated very easily. The second generation of the KCI 120 Dplus presented at this year's virtual trade show for automation has been optimized once again in terms of dimensions. With the same functionality, it was possible to further reduce the size and at the same time increase the diameter for the hollow shaft. Both variants of the KCI 120 Dplus extend the range of applications for robots to high-precision machining tasks. The purely serial EnDat 2.2 interface with Functional Safety also permits use in safe applications such as cobots for human-robot collaboration.

HEIDENHAIN KCI/KBI 1300 and KCI/KBI 100: Compact and lightweight for small servomotors

HEIDENHAIN developed the KCI 1300 (singleturn) and KBI 1300 (multiturn) inductive rotary encoders especially for compact motors in robots and other applications. They consist of a scanning unit and only one graduated disk for screw mounting, or alternatively a graduated disk with hub for pressing onto a motor shaft. For this purpose, they have a hollow shaft with a diameter of 25 mm, a very short design and low weight. At the same time, they are insensitive to contamination and magnetic fields. Mounting is very simple with generous tolerances, but is mechanically safe - as is data transmission via EnDat 2.2 with Functional Safety. Overload protection by an external temperature sensor is possible for reliable operation. With the new KCI 100 and KBI 100 variants, versions with a 30 mm or 40 mm hollow shaft are now also available with otherwise identical device characteristics.

AMO WMRA: Secondary Encoder for Large Shaft Diameters

Robot manufacturers can also achieve a significant improvement in absolute position accuracy by using additional, highly accurate angle encoders on the robot axis. Mounted after the gearbox, secondary encoders record the actual position of each robot joint. Modular solutions such as AMO's WMRA angle encoder system are available for these applications. The modular design with graduation drum or measuring ring and separate scanning unit makes it suitable for large shaft diameters as well as for difficult installation situations. With AMO's WMRA, the diameter of the measuring ring can be selected as desired.