There are many factors that play a role in choosing the proper drive mechanism for your automation equipment. It can be overwhelming, even for someone with a controls background, but here is an important rule of thumb: “Keep it as simple as possible”. Let’s assume that you just need to move between two points such as open and close for a gripper. Without any other requirements given, the clear choice would be pneumatic actuation. It is very simple to implement and speed, stroke, and sensing can be manually adjusted. Pneumatic actuators are also low in cost and have a high force to size ratio. All of these features make pneumatics a favorite for integrators and maintenance personnel alike.
So why choose electric over pneumatic? There are many reasons, but let’s start with the simplest. What if you need the functionality of pneumatics such as point A to B or open to close, but you don’t have access to pneumatics? Perhaps compressed air is not allowed in the environment or it just isn’t accessible. SCHUNK has alternative mechatronic solutions for such applications that make it as simple as possible to integrate electric actuators. SCHUNK “alternative” mechatronic solutions run off 24 Volt DC power and they simply open and close based on two digital inputs. Essentially they are controlled just like a pneumatic actuator. SCHUNK offers the EGP series of alternative grippers for small parts. The PGN-plus-E gripper would work for medium to large sized parts. And for linear applications, the ELB series of alternative linear motors offers an unparalleled ease of integration.