A new line of ballscrew- and linear-motor-driven sealed motion stages has been developed by Bell-Everman, Inc.  SLS Sealed Linear Stages feature a novel lip seal design that keeps debris, particulate and liquid contaminants from gumming up the internal drive and bearing components.

Made from a ruggedized polyurethane elastomer, the seal integrates seamlessly with the stage's anodized aluminum housing.  Polyurethane is resistant to chemical exposures, temperature extremes and mechanical wear.  The seal's design allows it to be field replaceable in minutes without disassembling the stage—or even removing the payload in most cases.

Available with both linear motor and ballscrew drives, SLS is intended for precision positioning jobs:
•Linear motor configurations can achieve accuracies of ± 4 µm per meter of travel and bi-directional repeatability of ± 2 µm.
•Ballscrew configurations can achieve accuracies of ± 10 µm per meter of travel and bi-directional repeatability of ± 5 µm.

Other technical specifications include:
•Standard travel lengths from 100 to 1,000 mm and custom lengths to 2,000 mm.
•Speeds to 4 m/sec for linear motor drives and 0.4 m/sec for ballscrew drives.
•Continuous linear force to 300 N for linear motor drives and 1,540 N for ballscrew drives.

Applications for the SLS Sealed Stages include laser machining, welding, semiconductor, machining and many other contamination-sensitive precision motion jobs.