New potential for robotics, elevators and chipmaking: Dplus from HEIDENHAIN
The Dplus designation means that a HEIDENHAIN encoder provides multi-dimensional motion feedback. This added functionality unlocks new potential in a variety of applications, including high-accuracy robots, safe cobots, continuous brake monitoring in elevators and finer structures in hybrid bonding and other electronics and semiconductor manufacturing applications.
The inductive KCI 120 Dplus dual encoder delivers position feedback both upstream and downstream from the gear system of a robot joint. This dual measurement is achieved via two separate circular scales read by a single scanning unit. By measuring the joint’s position downstream from the gearing, the encoder compensates for inaccuracies inherent in highly articulated and dynamic robot designs. One result is greater accuracy at the TCP. Another result, thanks to the EnDat 2.2 interface with functional safety, is the encoder’s suitability for safety-related applications such as cobots.
The KCI 419 Dplus elevator encoder does more than provide position feedback for elevator motion control. It also ensures greater operational reliability by continuously detecting the brake stroke. Based on this data, the downstream electronics can determine whether the brake is released or engaged and the level of brake wear. Elevators therefore no longer need microswitches for brake monitoring. And thanks to its location near the motor and brakes, the KCI 419 Dplus also delivers the data needed for temperature monitoring, another key benefit for higher system availability and reliability.
The LIP 6000 Dplus linear encoder with MULTI-DOF TECHNOLOGY from HEIDENHAIN provides direct, high-accuracy position feedback along its main linear axis and in a secondary direction. Exposing errors in multiple directions that affect the larger system allows them to be compensated for, resulting in much higher accuracy. And if multiple Dplus scanning heads are used on the same Dplus scale, or if multiple LIP 6000 Dplus linear encoders are used in combination, then motion in up to six degrees of freedom can be tracked. This adds up to considerably higher overall accuracy, enabling finer structures in hybrid bonding and other applications.