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Affordable nanometer-level precision focus stage

Zaber Technologies has launched the DMA Objective Focus Stage, a compact, linear motor solution for microscope OEMs. Starting at $4,500 with an integrated controller, it offers 50-nm repeatability and sub-15-ms settling times -- matching piezo precision at one-third the cost. Featuring plug-and-play architecture, a developer-friendly API, and a tiny footprint, it accelerates high-throughput workflows like spatial biology and digital pathology.
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How Ford automated a moving EV assembly line with vision-guided robots: Inbolt case study

Automating moving assembly lines is highly challenging. At Ford's Cologne Electric Vehicle Center in Germany, applying pressure to water shields on vehicle bodies required following a precise path on unsynchronized, continuously moving vehicle carriers. To automate this, Ford deployed two Universal Robots cobots equipped with Inbolt 3D cameras. Using real-time vision guidance, the robots track vehicle positions and adapt on the fly. The result? Near-zero repairs, reliable moving-line automation, and new possibilities for tasks like tightening operations.
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Inbolt launches vision-enabled Robot Programming, closing the loop from CAD to factory floor

Inbolt is launching two new capabilities that complete the company's AI Vision Model for robot guidance at Automate 2026 in Chicago, June 22-25. With Robot Programming and Robot Control, Inbolt covers the full path from virtual commissioning to adaptive robot motion control, for stationary and moving-line applications. It's one platform from perception to motion -- on the robots manufacturers already own.
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Top Tech Tip: How to specify electric rod-style actuators for optimal performance, reliability, and efficiency

The engineers at Tolomatic provide their Top 10 Tips for specifying electric rod-style actuators, which have a higher initial cost, more advanced design, and more predictable performance compared to fluid power cylinders. This is a really thorough presentation filled with useful information.
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High-precision multi-axis motion platforms

Motion Solutions delivers high-speed, high-accuracy XY scanning solutions optimized for OEM integration. These rigid, modular platforms provide stable, repeatable multi-axis motion control, ensuring faster throughput and precise positioning for advanced workflows. Ideal for automated microscopy, digital pathology, and spatial biology, the scalable design supports flexible travel lengths and custom configurations to seamlessly optimize your system.
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What is the best palletizing option for your operation?

Is your business looking to install or upgrade a palletizing system, but you don't know where to start? Marc Giguère from Robotiq does a comprehensive run-through of options including a fully engineered system, a cobot, or a plug-and-play setup. A lot depends on your production volume, budget, available space, and need for flexibility. Systems are compared and contrasted. Fastest ROI? The best lean system? What works for high throughput? Find out these answers and more, complete with an available buyer's guide chart.
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Robotic machine tending for CNC mills and lathes

At IMTS 2026, Mitsubishi Electric Automation will feature live demonstrations of LoadMate Plus and ARIA, two pre-engineered robotic machine tending solutions designed to help manufacturers automate CNC mills and lathes with confidence, flexibility, and scalability. LoadMate Plus is designed for quick setup and long-term deployment at a single machine. ARIA is a compact, configurable, and mobile solution for mill and lathe tending in space-constrained environments.
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What's a ceramic motor-driven linear actuator?

PI, a global leader in precision motion control and nanoposi-tioning solutions, provides a large selection of piezo ceramic linear actuators for different size, speed, and force applications. At the top end of the force spectrum is the N-216 PiezoWalk Linear Actuator, a high-load, high-precision linear actuator designed for applications that require many millimeters of travel, high force, and extremely stable nanometer-class positioning. PiezoWalk technology offers significant advantages over traditional motorized actuators in precision, stability, and energy efficiency. Its non-magnetic drive principle and strong radiation-environment performance provide additional benefits.
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KUKA robots accelerate solar panel installation

It can be tough to find manpower to help build large solar farms. Watch how KUKA robots help workers for Sunstall, a construction company based in Novato, CA, that specializes in ground-mount systems for large solar utility sites. With each module weighing 70 to 80 lb, moving solar units can get tiring fast. Safety is an issue too. Cosmic Robotics (San Francisco) helped design and build the mobile system, which uses a KUKA KR 70 to do the heavy lifting of the panels and places them onto the racking with millimeter precision. [Credit: Video screenshot courtesy of KUKA Robotics]
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Economical gearbox series for delta robot drives

Neugart's new NDFC gearbox series expands its delta robot portfolio, balancing cost efficiency with reliability. Positioned below the NDF series, it features a proven output stage, robust sealing, and a dynamic clamping system. Available in three sizes (064, 090, 110) with ratios from 16 to 100, it offers adjustable backlash to optimize savings. Ideal for food, beverage, and packaging applications.
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Conveying: Drive system enables two synchronous movements with max performance

The new FAULHABER DualGear drive system optimizes automated warehouse logistics, enabling two synchronous, powerful movements in one compact unit. Combining a BX4 motor with two GPT planetary gearheads, it is ideal for storage/retrieval machines and autonomous logistics. Hall sensors ensure exact positioning for compact, efficient, and reliable performance in demanding, small-space environments.
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Decentralized drives offer seamless integration

NORD DRIVE-SYSTEMS' NORDAC LINK motor starters, plus NORDAC LINK and NORDAC FLEX variable frequency drives, feature a plug-and-play design for rapid commissioning and high system availability. With onboard AS-Interface (ASi) functionality, these modular products integrate seamlessly into existing or new systems, supporting ASi standards V2.0 and V3.0 with integrated follower profiles for connectivity.
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Non-Magnetic ball slides made in the USA

Del-Tron's USA-made, non-magnetic ball slides prevent magnetic interference in medical, semiconductor, military, and laser applications. Featuring silicon nitride ceramic bearings, titanium shafts, aluminum components, and brass fasteners, these lightweight slides come in seven sizes with travels from .5 to 12 in., providing an ideal solution for sensitive environments.
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What's new in robotic efficiency and advanced gauging systems?

Renishaw will highlight its latest solutions for maximizing robot performance and manufacturing efficiency at Automate 2026, taking place June 22-25 at McCormick Place in Chicago. Highlights will be demonstrations of its Robot Calibration System for cell recovery and in-field robot calibration, the Equator-X dual-method gauging system for high-throughput production environments, and position and motion control encoders.
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New Titanium servo-drive line for harsh environs

The Elmo advanced Titanium line of harsh-environment servo drives offers optimal performance with advanced power density, providing exceptional intelligent and compact servo drives that are operational within minutes. These single-axis and multi-axis servo drives, featuring top-performance multi-core processors, deliver superior productivity, Functional Safety, advanced networking, and local intelligence in a compact package for operation in extreme conditions.
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How turbulences affect wind turbines: More realistic assessment of loads developed

Wind turbines are getting bigger and bigger. As a consequence, their components are subjected to ever greater stress or loads, such as those caused by sudden gusts of wind and other forms of turbulence. A team of researchers from the University of Oldenburg, Germany, in collaboration with partners from the Institut Chemnitzer Maschinen und Anlagenbau e.V. (ICM) and wind turbine manufacturer Nordex, also in Germany, has made an important advance in the modeling of these loads.

In three articles published in the scientific journal Wind Energy Science, the researchers, including turbulence expert Professor Dr. Joachim Peinke from the Forwind Center for Wind Energy Research, present a new concept with which the mechanical forces that act on rotors can be modeled more accurately than with previous standard models.

"With this approach, we present a potential tool for load estimations that could be used in the planning and design of wind turbines," Peinke said.

The rotor area of today's offshore wind turbines -- the circular area swept by the rotor blades as they rotate -- can be more than 200 meters in diameter. At full capacity, such wind turbines generate 20 megawatts of power -- enough to supply 200,000 people with electricity. One challenge posed by this increased size is that the turbines and their components are constantly bent as a result of fluctuating wind forces. These deformations cause material fatigue, which can lead to cracks or even fractures.

"Up to now, for the sake of simplicity, manufacturers have worked on the assumption that gusts of wind always hit the entire rotor area evenly," said co-author Jorg Schwarte from Nordex.

Sudden gusts of wind that are concentrated on small areas are the key factor in material fatigue
For smaller turbines, this assumption was adequate, but with larger wind turbines, turbulent wind conditions play a greater role in fatigue-induced wear. The key finding of this new collaborative study is that sudden gusts of wind that are concentrated on small areas are the key factor in material fatigue. To ensure that wind turbines are better adapted to these loads, manufacturers therefore need a more accurate mathematical description of the wind acting on the rotor and its fluctuations.

In three articles, the team proposes a new measure for describing the effects of local gusts. The researchers developed a method for calculating the forces that act on the rotor blades based on the current wind conditions, which experts call the "wind field." They describe this load using a simple parameter they refer to as the "center of wind pressure."

"If the wind flow is uniform, the center of wind pressure lies exactly in the middle of the rotor area," said Peinke. However, if a gust of wind affects only part of the rotor area, the center of pressure shifts away from the center, causing the rotor blades to bend more in that area and generating a torque that acts on the turbine's drivetrain.

The new concept accurately describes the actual loads on the turbine.

To develop this new load concept, the team used measurement data from modern turbines, as well as detailed wind data recorded by an array of measuring masts as part of the GROWIAN campaign, a project carried out in the German federal state of Schleswig-Holstein in the late 1980s. Dr. Jan Friedrich of the University of Oldenburg used the data to reconstruct wind fields acting on the rotor area and, based on this reconstruction, the researchers performed what is known as aeroelastic simulations in which they simultaneously calculated the wind flows and bending moments acting on different parts of the wind turbines.

Through complex flow simulations, the team demonstrated that the Center of Wind Pressure concept accurately describes the actual loads on the turbine. "Although we were able to use the university's high-performance computing cluster to do this, the simulations for large turbines can only be calculated in detail for a few minutes at a time," explained Marcel Bock, a PhD student at the University of Oldenburg and lead author of one of the papers. In the third paper, a team led by Peinke and PhD student Daniela Moreno developed a stochastic model for the Center of Wind Pressure that simplifies the calculations and could make it possible for manufacturers to carry out long-term simulations over several years.

"The bending is particularly severe when the center of wind pressure shifts to the outer edge of the rotor blade," said Dr. Carsten Schubert from the ICM. The team said that such extreme events are not detected by the control systems of current turbine systems, and therefore are not mitigated. Thanks to the new studies, this may now become possible.

In addition, Oldenburg-based wind researcher Dr. Matthias Wachter explained that the findings could also contribute to improving wind turbine design.

"Manufacturers make estimates of all expected material deformations over a lifetime of around 20 years and plan the materials and robustness of the components accordingly," he said. However, they have to grapple with many uncertainties in this regard -- primarily because it is impossible to calculate wind conditions with sufficient accuracy.

"Reducing these uncertainties would be a major advantage, as premature component failures are a significant cost factor in wind energy," said co-author Gritt Pokriefke from Nordex. New, detailed wind measurements are currently being performed at the WiValdi research wind farm on the River Elbe, in which ForWind is also involved.

The three publications are largely a result of the PASTA research project (Precise design methods of complex coupled oscillation systems of modern wind turbines in turbulent excitation), which was funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy in Germany over a period of three-and-a-half years and coordinated by Nordex.

Source: University of Oldenburg

Published June 2026

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