SMAC Europe Ltd

Founded in Carlsbad, California, in 1990, SMAC has a well-deserved reputation as a world leader in moving coil technology and has grown to be the world’s largest manufacturer of moving coil actuators.  SMAC actuators are unequalled as their unique design means that force, position and speed are all completely programmable.  All our actuators provide unrivalled performance at extreme high and low speeds, whilst offering sub-micron accuracy and repeatability.  The range of applications is immense – from positioning to measuring, inspection and pick and place.  Our solutions are used extensively in assembly, automotive, electronic, glassmaking, packing, medical and scientific applications, as well as many others.  Our patented ‘soft-land’ feature, available on many models, is an innovative solution allowing accurate and safe placement of fragile and/or high value components.  SMAC really has become global and our design and production plants in the USA, Europe and Asia offer exemplary technical support throughout the world.  True to our original aims, we remain a business run by engineers for engineers, with a large number of our staff worldwide being experienced engineers.  With that kind of know-how it is not surprising that we produce the very highest quality actuators, with innovative features, and that we will continue to look to the future and create and produce new technology to keep up us at the top of the field.

Assembly Applications

SMAC pick and place actuators are unique in that they are totally programmable.  Speed, position and force can all be simultaneously controlled with great accuracy to ensure correct component placement.  Our unique ‘soft-land’ function allows the unit to gently land on components with controlled force, ensuring that both the PCB component and the actuator are undamaged.  Our linear/rotary actuators are also suited for placing components at different heights.  You can see more technical detail on our website.

Automotive Applications

Our moving coil actuators are more suited than ever to the improved quality standards required in the automotive industry.  Through precision control and feedback technology, our units will precisely and repeatedly produce the high level of consistent quality manufacturing that is needed.  SMAC’s actuators are well suited for use in areas such as screw thread checking, seatbelt testing, switch testing, fuel injector components and wheel valve pressure testing.  There is more information about our automotive applications on our website, so do take a look.

Electronic Applications

SMAC's ‘soft-land’ routine allows rod and gripper actuators to approach at high speed, but land with gentle precision.  This unique patented feature is extremely useful in applications using delicate or high value components.  Our actuators are light and very fast, thereby offering precision movement at high manufacturing speeds.  The optional vacuum pick-up facility makes the actuators ideal for switch testing in a variety of applications, such as mobile phones, PDAs and touch screens.  Additionally, our actuators are ideally suited for die bonding applications, in which precise and gentle placement is required, in conjunction with a controlled amount of force, in order to ensure accurate bonds.  Please visit our website for more details.

Glassmaking Applications

Our actuators can be programmed very precisely, thus making them really stand out in glassmaking applications.  In very low force situations our actuators can provide speed and accuracy, with a ‘soft-land’ when needed.  Some of the many uses for our actuators in the glassmaking industry are measuring of thin flexible glass, inspection of curved glass, glass grinding, glass cutting and deburring.  You can see more in-depth technical information on our website, so do have a look.

Packaging Applications

SMAC’s new range of CBL Series actuators have been specifically designed with the packaging industry in mind.  These units have fewer parts and cost less, but still maintain SMAC’s reputation for quality, control and reliability.  In many situations our actuators can replace air cylinders, with a resultant improvement in better throughput, reduced servicing time and costs and quieter, cleaner operation.  Some of the applications for the CBL Series include cup dispensing, bottle filling, deblistering (popping pills), bottle sorting and diverting, high speed fly labelling, capping bottles and liquid nitrogen dosing.  You can learn more about our packaging applications on our website.

Medical and Scientific Applications

SMAC’s high precision actuators can achieve a positional accuracy of 5 nanometres, making them ideal for the precise positioning and placement needed in many critical applications.  The closed-loop control ensures all operational parameters of the actuator are fully controlled at all times.  For example, our actuators can test hypodermic needles at a rate of 1 per second, with a controlled force of +/- 25 grams.  The units are fully programmable, which allows switching over from position to force mode in a repeatable fashion, with precision feedback to the monitoring system.  There are more technical details available on our website.

Three Dimensional Applications

All the products in SMAC’s range of multi-axis actuator systems are easy to set up and provide complete control, along with the capability of learning.  A manually traced 3D route or contour will be accurately copied with great precision at high speed.  All of our various actuators can be used to build up a 3D system to suit each application.  The system can also move actuators at linear speed if required, for use in applications such as measuring and testing, depositing, machining and scoring and cutting.  Airbase is another application which has greatly benefitted from our 3D range.  Our fully automated solution has a cycle time of 2.1 seconds, with full data acquisition capability.  You can visit our website to learn more about our 3D applications.

Other Applications

SMAC’s unique precision controlled actuators make them the ideal choice in an array of specialised industrial applications.  Our ‘soft-land’ feature plus repeatable force and placements aspects of the units allow them to work in situations that other legacy automation devices cannot handle.  Some example applications are inspection of soft contact lens mold, inspection of rod eccentricity, material testing and latch inspection.  Our wide range of 2D and 3D system configurations can provide exactly the right solution for practically any high precision and high speed application. Have a look on our website for more about other applications.

Manuals & Brochures

Human Machine Interface (HMI) Testing Example

SMAC Diverting 020215

SMAC Actuator Manual (page 11)