Air Bearing Performance Without Air Bearings!

Even though the linear bearings in Steinmeyer’s precision stages are dramatically oversized, their stiffness is not infinite. Disturbance forces can elastically deform base plate, bearing and saddle and interfere in the straightness and flatness of the whole stage system. By applying flexure designs well known in piezo micropositioning stages, Steinmeyer developed a solution that virtually eliminates these effects!

The technology of decoupling devices is standard in all ball screw driven PMT 160 series stages from Steinmeyer. The PMT 160 offers travels from 50 mm to 300 mm, with standard positioning accuracy of less than 10 µm and repeatability of +/- 0.5 µm when driven by either dc servomotor (with rotary encoder) or dc stepper motor. Higher accuracies are possible through the use of linear encoders. The PMT series stages can be customized for vacuum and/or cleanroom operations as well. Production proven in thousands of units, they are ideal for applications in semiconductor, inspection, micromachining and other areas where high precision is critical to the application.