Know your position: Electric drives with battery-free absolute encoder for increased productivity and sustainability

Drives with battery-free absolute encoders from the LE series by SMC increase production through rapid restart of operations thanks to position retention during power loss and are environmentally friendly by eliminating the need for batteries. (Photo: SMC Deutschland GmbH)

Electric drives are indispensable in manufacturing processes – from automotive to food and pharmaceutical industries, as well as general automation applications. To ensure uninterrupted operation from the last position in case of power failure, the electric drives of the LE series from SMC are equipped with an absolute encoder that does not require a battery. The benefits include higher productivity, reduced maintenance and storage needs, and a lower environmental impact.

Even the most modern systems can come to a halt under certain conditions – due to maintenance work, an emergency stop in dangerous situations, or simply during a power outage. In these cases, electric drives are no longer supplied with power and come to a stop in their current position. When restarting the system, a reference run is usually necessary. To eliminate this and enable faster (re)commissioning, SMC, the specialist for pneumatic and electrical automation, has equipped the electric drives of the LE series with a batteryless absolute encoder.

Quick to be ready for use again

The built-in absolute encoder for stepper motors with a rated voltage of 24 VDC (±10%) stores the current position of the drive after a power loss and allows the operation to be resumed directly from the last stop position. This eliminates the need for referencing the drive, and the system can be quickly operational again – providing users with significant time savings and increased productivity. Additionally, storing the current position without a battery offers further advantages: batteries do not need to be replaced or stored, reducing maintenance effort and preventing environmental impact.

Comprehensive compatibility for diverse production processes

SMC offers the encoder for a wide range of drives and stepper motor controllers. These include drives in carriage configuration of the LEF series or spindle drives of the LEFS series, electric cylinders optionally with guide rods of the LEY/LEYG series, electric compact slides of the LES series or the high-stiffness version of the LESH series, as well as electric 2-finger grippers of the LEHF series and electric swivel drives of the LER series. Support is also provided for the stepper motor controllers of the JXCE1, JXC91, JXCP1, JXCD1, JXCL1, JXCM1, JXC51, and JXC61 series from SMC.

Versatile control options

The drives of the LE series with absolute encoder can be controlled via all common fieldbus protocols, including EtherCAT, DeviceNet, EtherNet/IP, IO-Link, PROFINET, and CC-Link. They are thus ideally suited for a wide range of applications such as pick-and-place, high-speed transfer, automated assembly and testing systems, lifting and positioning applications, gripping movements, thrust and impact applications for aligning or ejecting workpieces, pressing processes, rotary applications, and stopper applications in transfer systems.

This allows users across industries – from electronics and semiconductors to food and beverages, and sectors like medicine, pharmaceuticals, and packaging – to flexibly control their system drives. At the same time, they benefit from the advantages of the batteryless absolute encoder, such as quick (re)commissioning and reduced maintenance, labor, and storage requirements. Thanks to the elimination of batteries and their disposal, the environment also benefits from SMC’s new solution.