36 n PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MOTION CONTROL October 2025 www.drivesncontrols.com Three ways to improve electric linear drive performance In many industrial automation applications, electric linear drives can deliver better efficiency, consistency and precision than pneumatics. However, simple oversights during design and specification can result in serious problems, turning an electric automation dream into the “axis of all evil”. Mistakes we commonly see include undersized motors on vertical axes, incorrect gear ratios, and a failure to align the guides correctly – all resulting in sub-optimal machine performance and premature component failure. The knock-on effects for end-users can include higher energy consumption, increased maintenance costs, and lower productivity. Based on our findings from investigations into premature component failure, Festo has compiled a free-to-download guide called 10 Most Commonly Made Errors With Electric Axes that identifies common errors and offers best practice advice for optimising electric automation system performance. Our top tips include: 1. Factor in vibration When choosing a linear axis, specifiers rightly refer to the manufacturer’s datasheet to obtain information regarding the correct power and torque parameters. However, environmental conditions such as vibrations must also be factored in to ensure that the desired lifetime is achieved. Failure to consider environmental conditions can result in much shorter actual lifetimes than predicted, based on your chosen power and torque. More accurate predictions of component lifetime can be achieved by applying a specific factor to the load, as a function of the expected vibration, during the calculations. This factor lies between 13 and 23 and indicates the strength of the impact of the vibrations on the lifetime. The datasheet for each component will state how the impact of vibrations on the service life can be calculated. 2. Ensure full lubrication Electric automation components sometimes need to make repeated short and precise movements. This can pose problems for effective lubrication, resulting in components sticking or failing. For example, a ballscrew drive has a grease reservoir that ensures the drive is lubricated continuously during operation. In applications in which only a limited stroke length is used, the balls in the ballscrew assembly hardly move at all and so are not coated with any new grease. In such cases, an extended stroke, or “lubrication stroke”, should be made periodically. Ideally, this action should be programmed into the machine software – at the end of every shift or every production series, for instance. Lubrication requirements must be considered during the design phase to ensure that a movement over a longer stroke length is possible. 3. Thermal performance The thermal model of a motor and drive plays an important role in correct drive selection. Heating and cooling cycles are typically influenced by whether the application requires the electric drive to operate continuously or intermittently. In applications with intermittent operation, the components have time to cool down. This has a positive impact on their service lives, which means it is often possible to select a less powerful version than for continuous operation. Festo offers an electric motion sizing tool that helps specifiers and machine-builders to factor this in. They simply enter the dwell times between the movements alongside other typical application requirements such as motion, mass and speed. The online tool provides additional manufacturerindependent tips to consider when embarking on new machine designs. Vibration, lubrication and thermal performance are just three ways to improve an electronic drive’s performance and lifecycle. For a broader overview, Festo has gathered more tips, based on its experience in the field, and compiled them into the previously mentioned free guide, which you can download from www.festo.com/common_errors_electric_axis Simple mistakes when specifying electric linear drives can lead to serious problems. Ben Lloyd, electric automation product manager at Festo, outline three of these taken from a free guide that lists ten such errors. Festo’s electronic sizing tool can help specifiers and machine-builders to factor in key application parameters to optimise electric drive component selection Simple oversights during design and specification of electric drives can cause sub-optimal machine performance and lead to premature equipment failures
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