Renishaw, a British engineering company based in Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, has recently doubled the maximum length of its RTLA linear stainless steel ribbon scale. It is now available in lengths up to 21 metres and can be used with or without the FASTRACK™ scale carrier system. The longer RTLA scales, used with Renishaw’s RESOLUTE™ absolute optical encoders, are now suitable for applications with very long axes.
Renishaw’s RESOLUTE is one of the most advanced single-track true-absolute optical encoder system delivering up to 1 nanometre resolution, superior long-term reliability, instant operation after power-up without reference return, high speed performance to 100 m/s, smooth velocity control with interpolation errors (SDE) of ±40 nm and excellent positional stability with jitter (noise) of 10 nm RMS.
Renishaw’s low-profile stainless steel scales and allows them to expand at their own coefficient of thermal expansion. RTLA with FASTRACK is ideal for environments requiring frequent removal and replacement of damaged scales even when access is limited, thus reducing machine downtime. Installation of RESOLUTE and RTLA scale on machine axes translates into increased up-time, greater reliability and reduced cost of ownership for the end-user.
