Thomson Industries Inc. has launched an online ball screw sizing and selection tool to give motion designers fast, intuitive and precisely calculated ball screw solutions for their linear motion designs. The Linear Motioneering tool not only simplifies and streamlines the sizing and selection process, it also provides the designer more direct, self-serve access to decades of Thomson ball screw application expertise.
“It’s like having a motion control expert looking over your shoulder,” said Denise Goldman, Global Product Line Manager - Ball Screws at Thomson. “We have encapsulated 75 years of ball screw application experience and made it available to motion designers directly on our website. Whether they know exactly what they are looking for or want interactive guidance and recommendation support, they can get it in the fastest, most intuitive and effective way possible.”
Users who know what they need can quickly filter on product attributes and be presented with Thomson-recommended solutions along with immediate access to 3D models in popular formats, as well as pricing and lead times. Users can easily share orderable product part numbers and complete technical specifications with their own team members and/or order prototypes directly online with a credit card.
Design engineers working from potentially complex motion profiles with narrow tolerances can benefit from this new tool’s guidance in getting to the just-right ball screw assembly for their specific application design requirements. Immediate feedback reveals a dynamic pool of relevant design options as application parameters are entered via an intuitive, visual interface. Dynamic feedback allows design engineers to understand potential trade-offs and quickly iterate toward an optimal design solution. Time is a key benefit to using the new tool as it requires only minutes to complete detailed performance calculations and product selections that could otherwise take hours to accomplish manually.
“This new tool shortens time-to-order significantly, while yielding much better results,” Goldman added. “It’s all part of our ongoing program to optimize the customer experience for design engineers. This next step for ball screw sizing technology gives users direct and fast access to the full breadth of available Thomson metric and imperial product solutions ̶ all with the convenience of online self-service interaction providing the type of relevant, technical guidance only available previously in conversation with experienced application engineers.