High performance encoders for military and aerospace

High performance encoders for harsh environments

Renishaw offers a range of high performance position encoders for tough environments and mission critical reliability. This includes the new low temperature RESOLUTE™ ETR absolute optical encoder, the new component level RoLin™ magnetic encoder, and a number of OnAxis™ magnetic encoder modules.

RESOLUTE ETR		RoLin encoder		OnAxis encoder modules

Renishaw encoder advantages

Enabling you to lock onto target position faster, accelerate harder and decelerate harder

 By eliminating the weak links in the servo control loop, your motion system can react faster than ever before. How? The unique detection scheme employed by RESOLUTE ETR provides lower noise and significantly improved velocity ripple. This allows motion system designers the freedom to increase servo loop gain and therefore realise higher acceleration profiles, which also means the axis locks onto target position faster. Peak angular velocity can also be increased because RESOLUTE ETR achieves a maximum speed of up to 18,000 rev/min. In all senses, coarse-pitch inductive systems simply can't keep up!

Allowing you to gain tighter servo response, rock-solid positional stability and zero mechanical hysteresis

 All Renishaw encoders have a non-contact format; the scale is mounted directly on the rotor, the readhead is mounted directly on the stator. This format banishes couplings with their inherent hysteresis from the control loop, so the encoder measures the true position of the rotor. That's crucial to metrology because an encoder with a coupling acts like a sprung mass, overshooting and undershooting position and limiting system bandwidth. Furthermore, RESOLUTE ETR benefits from very low jitter, so positions are held with unequalled steadiness and precision.

Ensuring accurate tracking of targets, smooth velocity control and less blur on vision systems

Not only do Renishaw encoders provide high speed and high accuracy, they also excel in dynamic performance. The advanced optical scheme of RESOLUTE ETR is designed to minimise short-term errors (often known as Sub-Divisional Errors) that affect velocity ripple. As a result, deviation from the programmed velocity profile can be up to 10 times better than that of competitor systems. This provides you with far more accurate tracking of targets, less motion blur on vision systems and also helps reduce heat build-up on direct-drive axes.

Providing ultra-high accuracy, fine resolution and repeatable position

Renishaw angle encoders feature monolithic stainless steel ring scales, directly graduated with Extreme precision and completely eliminating the risk of cracking or shattering associated with fragile glass discs. Worried about ‘design requirements creep' or ever-increasing demands from end users? Be assured that Renishaw are your metrology partners who can meet or exceed your needs. For the ultimate in accuracy, REXA rings are guaranteed to achieve better than ±1 arc second total installed accuracy (0.0003 degrees), yet can be operated in high-shock, high-vibration environments. The impressive accuracy of our encoders is complimented by fine resolutions (up to 32 bits) and outstanding repeatability (to 0.01 arc second), thanks to superior position detection technology.

Offering low mass, low profile encoder modules with proven technology for military and aerospace

Renishaw works closely with its associate company RLS d.o.o, to produce a range of compact, high-speed rotary and linear magnetic encoders. Our RoLin encoder system and our family of OnAxis magnetic encoder modules are used within military and aerospace applications, including missile control systems, surveillance systems, robotics, bomb disposal and UAVs. These encoders are virtually indestructible, providing extreme performance in hostile environments.

With many years of experience supporting such integration challenges, we offer customised products within weeks of initial consultation. We encourage direct engineering team discussions to ensure that custom solutions are quickly integrated for rapid field deployment.