Designing long-travel axes: When rack and pinion outperforms ball screws and linear motors
Sponsored by GAM. A gearbox, pinion, and rack system provide the 7th axis, or lateral movement, for an articulated robot. (Image: GAM.) Pull a tape measure out a few inches and the blade is rigid. Keep pulling and at some point it starts to flex and wobble, then eventually buckles. It is a problem engineers know well when designing long-travel axes. There are three main ways to create precise straight-line motion in machines: rack and pinion, ball screws, and linear motors. In this article, we’l
Three main technologies create precise straight-line motion in machines: rack and pinion, ball screws, and linear motors. Rack and pinion systems, which use a rotating gear engaging against a toothed bar, outperform ball screws for long distances because ball screws experience a phenomenon called whip at lengths around 2-3 meters that can cause vibration and failure, while rack and pinion can scale to much longer distances by assembling multiple sections together. Compared to linear motors, rack and pinion systems offer lower cost per meter, higher stiffness, higher feed forces, and require no continuous power to hold position, though linear motors excel in clean room environments where rack and pinion's need for lubrication is problematic. The choice among these technologies depends on travel distance, cost constraints, environment, and precision requirements.
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