Are You Over-Engineering? This Motion Control Positioning Equipment Manufacturer Says You Might Be
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This article was sponsored by Velmex, Inc., a U.S. manufacturer of linear and rotary motion control positioning equipment for research, scientific, instrumentation, machining, and industrial applications.
Most motion control positioning projects require a high level of precision and accuracy, which would lead many industrial designers and mechanical engineers to select a motorized configuration, especially for automated applications.
However, in many cases, the more flexible, effective solution is actually a manually operated slide or rotary table.
“This is something we want people to think about. Are you over-engineering? Do you really need a motor? Are you adding substantial cost and complexity where it isn’t necessarily needed?” says Mark Myers, director of sales engineering at Velmex, Inc. “Is a manually operated solution potentially a better fit for the application?”
Velmex, Inc. is a New York-based manufacturer of linear and rotary motion control positioning systems. Their oldest and best-selling product is the UniSlide®, a linear positioning assembly that comes in manual and motorized versions.
“Although it’s not necessarily considered high-tech, the manually-operated UniSlide® is used in some very high-tech verticals, like laser part marking, EV charging, 3D printing, and aerospace manufacturing,” says Kathy Reissig, marketing manager at Velmex, Inc.
Thomas Insights sat down with Myers and Reissig to discover why their company and products like the UniSlide® have such longevity amid a fast-paced, dynamic technological landscape.
Get to Know Velmex, Inc.
- Velmex supplies organizations throughout the world with motion control products. Their customers include national governments, Fortune 500 companies, major research institutions, and universities.
- Founded in 1967, Velmex is a family-owned business based in Bloomfield, N.Y.
- In addition to UniSlide® assemblies, Velmex manufactures BiSlide® and XSlide™ manual and motor-driven assemblies; rotary tables, manual and motor-driven XY tables, elevating tables, and turntables; VXM™ motor controls; and VRO™ encoder readouts.
Thomas Insights (TI): Tell us more about the manually-driven UniSlide®. Why is it your best-selling product?
Mark Myers (MM): The UniSlide® is our most enduring product family. We don’t have a lot of competitors for this product because it’s more difficult to automate and requires a rather unique skill set to manufacture.
Most of the industry growth has been focused on motorized motion — products that are part of or tied to industrial automation. But there remains a consistent demand for non-motorized configurations, as many applications are still better served by manually-operated slides and rotary tables. Continued improvement over the past 50 years has positioned Velmex as a market leader for these products.
TI: What are the advantages of the manually-operated UniSlide® compared to motorized or electronic models?
MM: Simplicity. Users don’t have to calculate speed-torque values and determine motor sizing. It doesn’t need a motor controller and a power supply, which adds additional cost. All that is required is an operator to turn the ergonomic crank, and it works.
This simplicity reduces costs and extends service life. The UniSlide® is designed for manual operation and has a lower profile, which can be a big advantage where envelope size is a key consideration.
Another advantage is precision. One of the most common applications for the UniSlide® is in research and development labs, where precision rather than speed is the primary concern. These highly sophisticated designs require smooth, stable movement and exact positioning, with no backlash.
Motion systems that incorporate rolling elements such as ball screws and roller bearings by design produce backlash, whereas the UniSlide® design almost completely eliminates backlash while running more quietly, too.
Kathy Reissig (KR): I’ll also point out that when researchers are in the lab, controlling the positioning themselves, it’s easier to stop manually to study anomalies. But electronic or motorized machines are pre-programmed to go a certain distance and might not catch the anomaly. The UniSlide® is fully configurable and customizable, so we can build a version that meets customers’ exact needs.
TI: How does the UniSlide®’s high-contact dovetail design compare to boxway or shaft and bushing designs?
MM: The UniSlide®’s dovetail design provides greater contact between the carriage and the base, so it has higher load capacity and stiffness than a similarly sized rolling element guide, which operates only with point or line contact between the raceway and the rolling element. A dovetail design is much better at damping and absorbing vibration and shock, which tends to damage roller or ball bearings.
TI: What’s the story behind how the UniSlide® helped researchers at MIT?
KR: In a study of soft materials mechanics, the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering used a Rapid-Advance UniSlide® to help create a sample in a micro 3D printing experiment. They needed a way to reposition the polymer as the sample was being printed, and the UniSlide® stage allowed them to make these small, precise adjustments by hand. The study has allowed the team to examine the behavior of soft materials under specific conditions.
TI: What are some other common applications of the UniSlide® and other Velmex motion control positioning equipment?
MM: In addition to R&D, UniSlides® make up a large portion of our OEM business. One vertical market of note is laser part marking, where accurate and repeatable movement is key to product performance. UniSlides® are also crucial components for market-leading OEMs in the medical device industry. A frequent application for Velmex Rotary Tables (part of the UniSlide® family of products) is the precise positioning of optics in a wide range of OEM assemblies.
TI: Why should customers work with Velmex rather than a larger manufacturer?
MM: We cross over more industrial and vertical market boundaries than many other manufacturers. Even as a family-owned company, we do business with more Fortune 500 companies than much, much larger organizations. We have a very large standard product offering, but unlike other manufacturers, we’ll take on prototype and custom projects without minimum volume requirements.
KR: Because we build to order, we can build products that will fit perfectly inside whatever envelope our clients have. Due to the longevity of our products, we also often get repair orders for products that are over 35 years old.
TI: What trends are you seeing in the automation industry and how is Velmex poised to meet them?
MM: Velmex is part of the automation industry, one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. In the past, companies were resistant to adding automation to their production lines because they were worried that robots would take people’s jobs. Due to labor shortages and education, that viewpoint is changing. We need automation, especially with recent reshoring trends. The only way the U.S. is going to be successful at reshoring — while competing with low-wage manufacturing in other parts of the world — is to automate.
Velmex is prepared to meet these growing challenges with custom-built, American-made motion control products. We are nearly a 100% vertical manufacturer, designing, machining, and assembling all products in our facility in upstate New York.
Learn more about the UniSlide® and other Velmex products.
