Actuator Manufacturers: Not One-Trick Ponies

Posted on February 21, 2012 by micheals

If you’re in the business of manufacturing something, there’s a good chance that your company doesn’t manufacture only one product. Of course there are exceptions, especially in the case of highly-specialized products or in the case of very small operations. But it’s more likely, in general, that a given manufacturing company manufactures a plurality of products rather than just one product in large volumes. Companies that are in the Continue reading →

Linear Actuator Innovations

Posted on February 2, 2012 by micheals

Are linear actuators entering the technical vocabulary of hobbyists? Industry professionals have long been singing the praises of linear actuators because of their contribution to automation and, in turn, the broadening of lean manufacturing. Linear actuators make major contributions to high-tech industry the world over, and their influence is only continuing to increase. It’s increasing so much, in fact, that if you Continue reading →

Linear Actuators in Medicine and Beyond

Posted on January 24, 2012 by micheals

I’ve enjoyed good health for most of my life. I’ve never had extended illness or any chronic conditions, and for that I’m grateful. But I’m also grateful that if I did become ill, I’d have access to the most advanced health care technologies in the world (assuming I had insurance). I’ve had only one major encounter with that technology, and that was minor surgery on my jaw when I was in high school. I went through the whole process – consultation with my doctor, a CT scan and Continue reading →

The Miracle of Motion Actuators

Posted on January 6, 2012 by micheals

We’ve hardly begun to explore the world of possibilities that automation makes available for us. Particularly as the fields of robotics and automation have developed, we’ve begun to realize the potential for technological advancement, increased rates of innovation and even cultural changes that those technologies make available to us. Robotics and automation are technologies in motion, and I mean that both literally and figuratively. Automated robots are all about Continue reading →

How Hydraulic Linear Actuators Work

Posted on December 23, 2011 by micheals

Join me, for a moment, in a thought experiment. Imagine that you’re holding a straw in your hands. Imagine also that on one end of the straw is a piece of tape that covers one opening. Now imagine that you’ve partially filled the straw with water and you’ve tipped it so that the water is being contained in the end of the straw covered with tape. Imagine now that you’re squeezing the straw just where the waterline starts. If you squeeze hard enough, you’ll notice that the seal formed by the Continue reading →

Rotary Linear Actuators

Posted on December 8, 2011 by micheals

Not all actuators are used to produce linear motion. Granted, the word “actuator,” within the context of industry, tends to be associated more often with linear motion than with other kinds of motion. But rotary actuators are important tools for industry, and they serve a variety of purposes in a variety of contexts. Also, in addition to their capacity to actuate rotary motion, rotary actuators can actually be used to Continue reading →

Seeing the Importance of Linear Actuators to Industry

Posted on December 2, 2011 by micheals

It can be hard to understand exactly why and how linear actuators are useful if you haven’t been exposed to some of their applications. After all, what makes a little cylinder that expands and retracts so important? How could an entire industry be built to support the market for these things? It just happens that linear actuators are among the unsung heroes of industrial modernization. They are usually employed out of sight and out of mind, but advanced industrial products manufacturing and Continue reading →

Electric Actuators and Robotics

Posted on October 24, 2011 by micheals

Let’s depart briefly from the world of linear actuators’ more normal uses in manufacturing machinery and other equipment for a glimpse into something a little more exotic (see the video above to learn a bit about linear actuators). It’s time to talk about robots! The field of robotics may not seem very important compared to other areas in industry. After all, there is a real need for real, useful manufacturing equipment, and next to those products, robotics R&D can seem like a bunch of pipe dreams. But that’s Continue reading →

DC Actuators: Not Just for Industry

Posted on October 18, 2011 by micheals

If you were to stop a random person on the street and ask him or her if he or she could describe to you what a linear actuator is, it’s likely that all you would elicit would be a blank stare. This would be primarily because most people would be caught off guard by the randomness of the question. The secondary reason would be that the average person is unlikely to know what a linear actuator is or does. Most people, if given Continue reading →

Valve Actuators, Old and New

Posted on September 28, 2011 by micheals

The term “valve actuator” is likely to evoke images of automotive components for many people with backgrounds in industry, specifically those who have had experience in the automotive industry as professionals or as hobbyists. However, it may surprise some of those people to hear that actuators are used in the control of valves outside of the context of the automotive world. In these other contexts, valve actuators might not used to the same extent as they are to close choke Continue reading →

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