November 6, 2013 - Tolomatic achieves USDA-certification for ERD electric actuator. The stainless-steel ERD electric cylinders are ideal for food and beverage processing equipment being deployed in caustic washdown environments, where corrosion resistance, ingress protection and hygienic design are critical. The ERD hygienic design features a round body, smooth edges, stainless-steel construction, welded joints, and a special hygienic bracket to prevent contamination of food processing environment. These design features make the new sizes of the ERD25 and ERD30 USDA certified for meat (livestock), poultry and dairy processing applications. In addition, Tolomatic offers the complete ERD product family with ingress protection ratings of IP67 or IP69k for various environments.
The ERD is an economical, efficient rod-style electric actuator family designed as an alternative to pneumatic cylinders and hydraulic cylinders. The products are suitable for a wide variety of applications including volumetric filling, cutting, product changeovers, diverting/sorting, pressing and more.
The ERD electric cylinders are now available in six body sizes, stroke lengths up to 40 inches (1,016 mm), speeds up to 57.5 inches/sec. (1,460.5 mm/sec.), and forces up to 4,500 lbf (20.03 kN), depending on the size and screw choice.
The product family is available with ball screws, roller screws and acme screws for a variety of cost, force, speed and life options to fit most applications. The ERD is also compatible with most third-party servo and stepper motors (NEMA and metric), creating a flexible, powerful electric actuator solution. The motors can be mounted inline with the actuator or in a reverse-parallel motor mount that makes a more compact package with belt reduction options that offer flexibility in sizing the motor. ERD products are round bodied, following the design of most pneumatic actuators in this performance class. The rear head of the actuator features an oversized main bearing to accommodate high thrust loads and provide long life.
The main tube and thrust tube are made of stainless steel for high rigidity and corrosion resistance, while the metric-threaded nose mount accepts a jam nut that provides convenient mounting for many applications. Mounting options include a rear clevis, rear trunnion mount, foot mounts or a front flange mount. The ERD actuators can accommodate six different sensing or switching choices: reed, solid state PNP (sourcing) or solid state NPN (sinking), normally open, flying leads or quick-disconnect. The switches are activated by a standard internal magnet located inside the thrust tube. Commonly used for end-of-stroke positioning, these switches allow clamp-on installation anywhere along the actuator tube.
All switches are CE rated and are RoHS compliant for environmental compatibility.