TechArchive

Original article date: April 2000

An encoder with millions of variants from a single disc is on offer from Stegmann. Alan Quinn considers the implications for encoder users

Perhaps the greatest problem with the development of encoders has been that all manufacturers have needed a large number of etched discs – one for each number of incremental lines – to accommodate the resolution requirements of all of their users.

In conventional designs, the etched discs have to be cemented to the shaft, which means that the shaft type and its profile have to be determined before the product can be made. The natural result of this, along with fact that an enormously wide and varied range of components have to be connected around the shaft/disc assembly, is that an extremely large number of different mechanical procedures are required.

This has resulted in obvious difficulties, both for the manufacturer and the end user. Only order-specific production is possible, with the inevitable consequences on delivery lead times.

Now, with an encoder system called Coretech, Stegmann claims to have changed all this. Coretech uses a disc with an electronically applied line pattern which is imposed as part of the manufacturing process itself. This means that only one type of disc needs to be held in stock and – it sounds silly to say it – any one of 10 million possible versions can be generated, with only 100 individual components.

Stegmann isn’t saying too much about the actual production process itself but, in particular, the discs can be despatched within 48 hours, way in advance of the current industry benchmark. The user can choose from a very wide range with much improved quality and reliability. And there is no price premium, whether the customer requires a solid or hollow shaft, servo or face mount, absolute or incremental.

• Stegmann

April 2000