Bell-Everman announces that its latest generation of ServoBelt Linear actuators features a design enhancement that simplifies the assembly and installation of long-travel motion systems including gantry and linear robots. The new design, which involves the lower static toothed belt, also strengthens ServoBelt’s ability to non-destructively withstand high-force events, such as carriage crashes.

In earlier designs, the belt adhered to its aluminum carrier using 3M’s VHB adhesive tape. While strong, the VHB did complicate the assembly and installation process, requiring integrators to accurately apply the adhesive tape onsite at the actuator’s end-use location. This process also made it difficult to splice sections of ServoBelt together — which is essential when building systems with long travel axes — requiring higher attention to detail and cleanliness.

Improving on the earlier design, ServoBelt now has a “rack” of teeth molded directly into the actuator’s aluminum carrier. The rack offers precision tooth forms identical to the static belt it replaces and is molded from an equally rugged polyurethane — with a 50 Shore D hardness and minimum 4,500 psi tensile strength. The design now allows integrators to splice ServoBelt sections just as easily as they would with a traditional rack-and-pinion, using a simple tool similar to a tooth rack. It also offers significantly more resistance to tearout forces than the earlier design.

The latest generation of ServoBelt includes the new molded belt trays, along with QR codes to take personnel directly to the splicing instructions on the Bell-Everman website.