Numerik Jena Offers Miniature Kit Rotary Encoder for Tight Spaces

Numerik Jena’s Kit R rotary optical encoder is ideally suited for those motion feedback applications where installation space is limited. The scanning unit has a very low height profile of only 3.5mm and the thin graduation carrier disk, only 0.5mm thick, is made of lightweight aluminum. Now available in North America through Heidenhain Corporation, this flat rotary encoder serves applications in a wide variety of industries such as semiconductor, medical, metrology, and automation.

The Kit R encoder disks have a wide variety of line counts based on many sizes of outer and inner diameters with each including a reference mark. The disk must be mounted to a hub via a gluing process, of which either the customer can perform, or Numerik Jena can provide as a service. The aluminum disks are coated to help prevent damage from contamination and increases robustness of the encoder system.

Kit R scanning units are modular in design, and can be ordered as just the sensor or sensor with a mounting frame. There are several mounting frames to choose from or one can be designed as a custom. The cable from the sensor is a ribbon cable in order to minimize space. To pass the signals from the small sensor to a control, one can use a tiny connector board, which then can connect to a control via a normal cable and connector. The connector boards can provide a 1 Volt peak to peak or TTL output. With the largest disks, one can attain a resolution of 9,600,000 counts per revolution. The scanning units can be programmed after the best mechanical installation has taken place in order to boost signal quality to ensure longer lifetime on the machine. An online compensation is also included in the scanning units, which decreases sensitivity to contamination.