WITTENSTEIN North America
WITTENSTEIN North America

Applying Innovation & Excellence To Customized Rotary Indexers

The requirements: A precision gearbox with zero backlash and extremely low mechanical wind-up. That’s what engineers at MGS Mfg. Group were looking for in a servo gearbox for a new rotary table machine design. The precision gearbox would allow them mechanical advantage needed to handle inertia changes while using standard servo motor control setup. MGS is a best-in-class custom manufacturer with a unique business model: the company delivers tooling as well as molding and comprehensive automation, taking on the role of a single-source supplier on a worldwide basis. 

THE CHALLENGE: REDUCE MOVE TIME AND MAINTAIN PRECISION FOR ROTARY INDEXER

THE CHALLENGE: REDUCE MOVE TIME AND MAINTAIN PRECISION FOR ROTARY INDEXER

Learning about Galaxies' revolutionary performance inspired MGS engineers to think about ways to leverage the zero-backlash precision. After 12 months an opportunity evolved, in the form of a customer request for a highly customized indexing table with high precision for a medical application.

The team concluded torsional rigidity was critical for the axis — if the gear-box is not rigid enough, the table could rotate or oscillate when decelerating to a stop, causing longer move times due to the settling time. Planetary or harmonic design gearboxes simply did not have the required stiffness. 

SIMPLIFIED SETUP, SMALLER FOOTPRINT AND LOWER COSTS TO PRODUCE. EVEN BETTER — CYCLE TIMES WERE SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCED.

SIMPLIFIED SETUP, SMALLER FOOTPRINT AND LOWER COSTS TO PRODUCE. EVEN BETTER — CYCLE TIMES WERE SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCED.

In the past when MGS machines required this level of rigidity, they would use a direct drive motor. While this achieved the necessary rigid-ity, the solution was overly complex requiring additional engineered components to achieve machine safety. That’s when MGS engineers thought of Galaxie®.

MGS engineers worked closely with the WITTENSTEIN Galaxie® team to out-line application requirements, address challenges and set performance benchmarks. The Galaxie® solution delivered high rigidity in a compact setup. The servo tuning is simplified due to the combination of zero backlash and high rigidity together with the mechanical advantage of the gearing. This allows for changing inertial loads without any concern of system instability that can be a challenge in a direct drive motor solution. 

THE REVOLUTIONARY TECHNOLOGY

THE REVOLUTIONARY TECHNOLOGY

When we developed the Galaxie®, we subjected drive concepts to a fundamental reassessment. The result: a brand new gearbox type. Its unique kinematics enable virtually full surface contact of each independently moving tooth during power transmission. 

This means that the compact Galaxie® Drive Systems and gearboxes with hollow shaft achieve previously inconceivable performance data. These include extremely high torque density, torsional rigidity, smooth running, positioning accuracy and completely backlash-free operation. 

See the design principles and scientific validation behind the Galaxie

PARTNERS IN INNOVATION

PARTNERS IN INNOVATION

Since its inception, MGS has earned a reputation as an extremely entrepreneurial company. Employees deeply embody this spirit of innovation, combining passion with a willingness to take risk. The MGS team is in-credibly motivated to succeed – turning ideas into actions and continuously seeking better ways of doing things. This “never settle” attitude and MGS commitment to excellence is what led the company to work with WITTENSTEIN for more than a decade now. 

Learn more about MGS solutions here

At MGS we focus on being on the forefront of innovation. This is achieved by partnering with technology leaders which enable us to provide robust out of the box solutions


Shawn Krenke, Vice President MGS Automation Division