Company announces North American Electromechanical NC Joining Modules

Kistler Instrument Corporation, a supplier of precision sensors, systems, and instrumentation for the dynamic measurement of pressure, force, torque, and acceleration, announced the debut of the NCFT Type 2157A series, an electromechanical servo press family offering reliability force displacement monitoring within assembly, joining and other single-channel control applications.

The low-maintenance design of the series incorporates an integral piezoelectric dual range tension/compression force sensor and charge amplifier in a robust housing, allowing modules to offer high-velocity travel, precision joining, and process monitoring in ranges of 0.25 kN to 1 kN with practical repeatability of <0.005 mm. Modules offer active compensation of process compression for exact positioning, while providing for up to 15x overload capability. They can be installed vertically or horizontally via wall or flange mount. An absolute encoder is integrated into the electrically commutated AC servo drive motor for precise positioning, eliminating the need for reference point determination. The servo controller provides a constant speed independent of load. Standard functions like block, position and force feedback, controlled pressing and intermediate positioning are fully supported.

A typical joining system consists of the press module and one of several different models of the Kistler process evaluation controllers, which allow for parameter setup, evaluation and reporting of the assembly process.  The Kistler evaluation system takes sensor data and converts into force-displacement measurement curves, displayed in graphical format, while continuously evaluating all process phases via its programmable tolerance windows. A Fieldbus interface and Ethernet connection are standard for PLC communication and quality assurance data output in CSV, txt, I-P.M. or Q-DAS format. Positioning and joining criteria may be edited via menu-driven parameters within the device unit, eliminating the need for an external PC or special software. Process tooling may also be installed on the ram.