SMC Intros LC8 to Family of Actuators/Controllers
SMC Corp. (Tustin, CA), a manufacturer of pneumatic automation products, announced its new LC8 ac servo motor controller, which is a servo amplifier/controller for the LJ, LG and LTF Series actuators, and provides high-level features at mid-level pricing.
The LC8 is measures 141 mm x 75 mm x 130 mm, weighs less than 1 kg, and is available for 100 Vac to 115 Vac or 200 Vac to 220 Vac power, and either 50 W, 100 W or 200 W motors. Up to seven LC8s can be slaved together for control from a single PLC, which can execute 117 steps that can command any or all of the actuators to move to a specific position, move a specific distance, or apply a specific amount of torque. The position accuracy is ±0.005 mm to ±0.025 mm, depending on the feed screw lead of the actuator. There are also five palletizing steps that can use the same command from the PLC to move two axes sequentially through pallets of up to 10,000 rows by 10,000 columns.
The LC8 comes with easy-to-use human/machine interface software for configuring and testing the controllers. The HMI software includes features for "teaching" positions by moving the actuators either manually or under power, and all of the configuration data can be stored in files so that a setup for one machine can be easily duplicated on many others.
