Motion Index Drives was tasked with design­ing, engineering, and manufacturing a linear transfer shuttle for automotive manufacturing. The specifications required a unit capable of moving almost 2.5 tons over a 5 meter distance in ~10 seconds, with a maximum height of 314mm to the floor. A machined carriage plate was engineered to achieve this low height and leveling feet were placed on the same plane as the bottom tube structure to achieve a lower profile. Heavy duty versions of a 45 series linear bearing were used to handle the load, as well as mounting a high torque extreme low backlash (less than 1 arc-min) reducer to handle moving the load smoothly and accurately.

We were tasked to obtain +/-0.25mm positional accuracy in all directions. The rack and pinion system used provides 100% repeatability, with an accuracy of+/- 0.1 mm. A linear encoder system was used that also achieves a positional feedback accuracy of +/-0.1 mm.