Servo Cylinder VS Linear Actuator-What’s the difference?
Servo Cylinder VS Linear Actuator
If you’re searching for a linear motion solution for the first time, you might find yourself a little bit confused. Becasue there are several different terms used to describe what appear to be identical products: linear actuator, servo actuator, linear servo and several others.As a result, this post is aiming to help you understand what is meant by ‘Linear actuator’ vs ‘Servo actautor’.
It’s important to know that other than the connection cable, all of the differences are internal. Linear actuators and linear servos look different when viewed from the outside. But linear actuators are smaller in size. However, they move exactly the same way, in and out.
An actuator operates in the same manner as an electric motor. When power on, the motor will move. And once the power off, the motor will stop. Actuators are exactly the same. They are simple devices that only recognize on or off and incapable of position control on their own.
A servo actuator can receive a command to go to a specific position. And then they act on that command. It’s not a simple power on-power off equation. A servo can be told what to do and then do it on it’s own. They can adjust the speed and position within the stroke precisely. What’s more, servo actuators are more complicated in structure.
The electric servo cylinder is an industrial automation product that converts the rotary motion of the control motor into linear motion. Various types of motors (such as servo motor, stepper motor, brush motor, brushless motor) are used to drive diferent types of screw (or nut) to rotate and pass between components.
The rotation motion is converted into linear motion of the nut (or screw), and then the nut (or screw) drives the piston rod and the load to make a reciprocating linear motion. Best Benefits-the features of servo control system which include precise speed control, precise torque control will be converted into precise force control, precise speed control and precise position control of the electric cylinder, it’s a revolutionary product for high-precision linear motion.
Actuators are ideal for projects and situations where what you need is the same range of linear motion all the time. You can apply power and it will extend until the end-limit switch shuts off the power. Reverse the polarity and the same will happen in retraction.
Linear servos are ideal for more complex applications where you need the device to respond to an external command for a certain position. This is how standard RC servos work. Linear servo must have 3 or more wires. Power, ground and a signal wire to tell the servo what position it should go to.
So to summarize, an actuator is a simple device that can not complete a task without being told to do so. Besides, a servo actuator is ‘smart’ in that it can accept an input signal and go to that position on it’s own.
It’s actually fairly simple, but this distinction can cause some confusion. I hope this article has helped you understand the difference and hopefully give you the foundation you need to choose the best device for your application.
Need some help choosing the correct device for your next project? Please give us a shout, UNI team would be happy to help you!
