Modern buildings with a wide range of uses are now equipped with an astonishing variety of drive and automation technology. This technology often works almost invisibly in the background, while users benefit from a high level of operating convenience. Property protection and access control, as well as shading and climate control, are common applications for innovative drive solutions. Our ball screw drives or sliding screw drives are used wherever something needs to be moved in such applications. To enable perfect movement, Eichenberger pushes the boundaries and passionately ventures into new profile shapes, exotic materials and dimensions.
Intelligent sun shading systems on building façades automatically adjust to the position of the sun. The drive technology must combine high efficiency with a small footprint. Eichenberger meets these requirements with high-precision and robust cold-formed ball screws and lead screws.
Be careful not to ignore the sun
At the time, the media reported on the sun-reflecting glass façade of the Walkie-Talkie skyscraper in London's banking district. There was a lot of malice and anger during the construction phase of the skyscraper. The chic office building mutated into a solar mirror with an enormous burning power due to the special concave curvature of the structure. Not only passers-by were dazzled. The heat emitted by the glass façade caused tiles to burst and the dashboard and other plastic parts of a luxury car parked nearby to melt. Even a bicycle saddle ignited and a doormat in front of a hairdressing salon went up in flames. This singe effect, due to the seasonal angle of incidence of the sun, caused quite a stir. If the originally planned horizontal slats had been installed as sun protection, these incidents would not have occurred.
Concealed drive solutions in use with high-tech façades
The challenge for building services engineers often lies in the optimization of existing systems and the individual, demand-oriented integration and combination of available technologies and products. Today, the aim is to optimize thermal insulation, protect interior spaces from overheating, ventilate in a controlled manner, make the best possible use of daylight and reduce air conditioning to a minimum. The 18 mm diameter, 24 mm pitch, stainless steel Speedy steep thread spindle, for example, is able to manage the reliable positioning of heavy, sensor-controlled shading elements on ultra-modern building façades. Privacy, light and heat protection are automatically and precisely adapted to the weather conditions. The 6-metre-long steep-screw spindles from Eichenberger integrated in the shading system implement an enormous spindle pitch ratio with astonishingly high travel speeds, which in turn allow very low rotational speeds. This enables the spindle to rotate slowly and efficiently, preventing vibrations. One of the challenges was to achieve the precision, concentricity and straightness of the threaded rod over a length of 6 meters.
Dynamics in the smallest space in the tilt ventilation system
Our passion for perfect movement is constantly leading us down new paths. This results in products that bring your innovations to the forefront of the market. Whether standard design or customized solution: Our precision screw drives are used in a wide range of industries and countless applications - and have been for several decades. Whether particularly small or low-noise, designed for high loads or fast movements, we guide our customers to the ideal drive solution with the right services.
A manufacturer was looking for the optimum drive component for a new, fully automatic window locking system. A concealed, tailor-made motion element was to be installed in a tiny window fitting of a tilt ventilation system. For Eichenberger, it was clear that only a Carry ball screw drive - due to its high efficiency η of over 0.9 and the associated energy efficiency - would be up to the task. Little space, load, humidity / condensation and service life were written in bold letters in the specifications. Furthermore, the drive element also had to have a driver for connecting other construction components and meet the other quality requirements such as speed and accuracy.
The designers decided to use a corrosion-resistant Carry ball screw, type ZYI, diameter 8 mm, pitch 1.5 mm as the basic element. With the integrated single-turn ball return in the nut, the smallest dimensional specifications can be mastered. The developers completely redefined the outer geometry of the nut and mounted the driver part supplied by the manufacturer on it. The inner workings of the nut could remain unchanged according to the requirements, which brought a decisive price advantage. In addition, a design for the anti-rotation lock was installed. What sounds so simple is only possible if the team works very closely together. This is the case at Eichenberger. Development, production and quality assurance work hand in hand. The rolling tools can also be manufactured "in-house", meaning that prototypes can be produced within a very short time. Thanks to these factors, production can be flexible and competitive even at an expensive location.
Advantages of cold forming
A thread is produced by deforming a workpiece under enormous force between two rotating rolling tools. Thread rolling, also known as thread rolling, leads to a considerable increase in strength, good roughness values and reduced notch sensitivity. The longitudinal fiber of the base material is only deformed, so there is no interrupted fiber flow as with threads produced by machining. The result is a "smoothly rolled", compressed surface, which is essential for a long service life of the spindle. This, together with the optimum combination of spindle, nut and lubrication, gives Speedy 18/24 a remarkably high efficiency of η 0.65. The designer thus has the option of using a motor that can be reduced in terms of power and space consumption. The excellent sliding properties with a coefficient of friction of less than 0.1 ensure minimal abrasion and silent running.
For everything you want to move: Eichenberger screw drives drive it - quickly, precisely and reliably.
Energy efficiency, resource conservation, noise and pollutant reduction: even a simple mechanical drive element has to meet increasingly ambitious requirements in the age of automation, digitalization and miniaturization. That is why we are constantly working on the further development of our screw drives with a passion for perfect motion. Eichenberger innovations enable amazing loads in a small installation space. Sophisticated deflections in the nut provide you with outstanding advantages.
