Positioning Axes with Stainless Steel Casing
Luhden – BAHR Modultechnik, a globally leading supplier of modular positioning systems, offers its linear axes also with hygienic stainless-steel casing. In many production areas of the pharmaceutical and food industries, the machines and equipment located close to the production processes must be made of scratch- and abrasion-resistant materials that are easy to clean and offer no basis for the accumulation of bacteria. Stainless steel meets these requirements in an optimal way.
However, providing positioning axes with such a casing is difficult because of their geometry. Therefore there have not been any satisfactory, economical solutions on the market up to now. Some manufacturers tried glueing the stainless-steel sheets onto the profiles, but the adhesion proved to be insufficient: different thermal expansions of the profiles and the glued-on steel sheets strained the contact points and led to a rapid detachment. BAHR Modultechnik chose a different approach and developed a special process to encase the aluminium guide profiles of its linear axes with stainless-steel sheets. The patented process involves a machine designed specifically for this purpose, making it possible to bend the stainless-steel sheets precisely around the profiles. The sheet edges are bent around the profile walls of the carriage guide slot and firmly locked in place in undercuts within the profiles, resulting in a reliable connection.
