A market segment with growth potential: bearings and drive solutions for production automation

• New YRTA rotary axis bearing series specifically developed for production automation
• Integration of spur gear teeth into rotary axis bearing saves installation space and costs
• Schaeffler’s RIB torque motor enables shortest possible cycle times in a rotary indexing machine from Strama-MPS

Experts from the metalworking industry will meet again for five days at AMB 2024 in Stuttgart. Under the motto “Innovation across every axis,” Schaeffler will present its latest innovations for the machine tool sector and offer answers to the many trends in the field of metal-cutting production.

A new rotary axis series for automation                                                                                                                         

Over half of all machining centres are ordered with automation solutions. Generally, the bearing supports used in the linear and rotary axes of these machines are the same as those installed in the machining area. The requirements that these “handling systems” place on the bearing supports with regard to speeds, loads and accuracies are usually not as high as those in the machining area. This opens up potential for optimisations. On the basis of the proven rotary axis series YRTC, YRTS, ZKLDF, OZU and XSU, Schaeffler will bring a new rotary axis bearing series onto the market, which is specially developed for the automation solutions in the machine tool surroundings. “Our aim is to find an optimum solution to the conflicting priorities of function and costs,” says Christian Straub, Manager Sector Development Industrial Automation. The new YRTA and YRTAG rotary axis bearing series mark the start of this product campaign. They have the same external dimensions as the YRTC series. Both the radial runout accuracy and the speed capacity are slightly reduced compared to YRTC bearings. As a new feature, YRTAG-series rotary axis bearings combine the rolling bearing with the spur gear of the customer’s gearbox. This functional integration saves customers the outlay of aligning a separate gear and significantly reduces the installation space and costs.

Expansion of the linear motor portfolio

The L7-series of linear motors are not only an extension to the range but also represent an innovation in technology. These linear motors were developed for high precision machine tools with large peak forces up to 24,313 N. While motors with optimised peak force or power loss characteristics are already offered on the market, the L7 linear motors combine both these strengths. They offer an outstanding acceleration capacity, while remaining significantly cooler. As a result, cycle times can be reduced and the high energy reserves ensure high contour accuracy of the workpiece.

Direct drive in a rotary indexing machine from Strama-MPS
Strama-MPS from Straubing, one of the ten largest special machinery manufacturers in Germany, has developed the RT e-cam series, a new generation of rotary indexing machines with a minimum floor area and excellent accessibility to the entire technology and tools. The RIB torque motor from Schaeffler moves the rotary table with a diameter of over 1.5 metres and up to 18 clamping devices one station further in a cycle time of under 0.25 seconds. To achieve this, the engineers adapted the coil windings of the RIB torque motor precisely to this application and designed the cooling system in collaboration with the development team from Strama-MPS. The highly dynamic rotary indexing table is equipped with an YRTC bearing from Schaeffler and achieves a positioning accuracy of ±3 mm due to the rigid overall construction.

New growth potential through automation

With roller bearings specifically developed for automation in the machine tool surroundings, Schaeffler has opened up a new market segment and laid the foundation for additional growth. The company is already developing further series for production automation in order to cover the widest possible range of automation solutions and to continue to live up to the claim of “Innovation across every axis” in the future.