Off the shelf XY gantry system controlled with LabView

[elmer_fud]

I am looking for an XY gantry system that I can easily control from labview.  I need a workspace of 11 by 16 inches with minimum clearance of 6 inches.  I was wondering if anyone has used a commercially available XY gantry or has any experience with an XY gantry.

I have found these two tables/brands that already have LabView drivers

http://www.zaber.com/products/product_detail.php?detail=G-LSQ450D450D&tab=Series%20Features#tabs

http://www.techno-isel.com/tic/Catdas/Gantry3.htm

And this one that looks promising too

http://www.animatics.com/en/products/table-top-robot/animatics/table-top-robot/2-axis-ttr-xy-configu...

Both Zaber and Techno Linear do not know of anyone in my area (Loveland, Colorado or Denver area) that I could go visit to see a table and I would like to see a working system before making a decision to buy a new system. I have not been able to talk to an engineer/technical sale representative at Animatics yet. 

I am looking at using the XY gantry to position a sensor over a tray of parts to measure some properties of the parts.  The system I am designing does not need an high accuracy table (+- 0.005" is fine).  I would prefer to spend about $10K for a XY gantry table including any required controllers and hardware. 

Thanks,

Brian

[Sarci1]

Hey elmer_fud,

Have you seen the Stage Advisor on our site?  This may give you some more options for your stage.  Unfortunately, I cannot recommend one over the other, but by posting here you may be able to receive advice from other customers using a similar setup.

Best of luck moving forward!

Lynn

[Highland_Controls]

You have a good start, but 2 other things that you need to consider are your load and speeds required.  This will determine the mechanics of the gantry(ball screw, acme screw, belt, bearing type, etc.).  It will also determine if you need servos or you can get away with steppers.  You then need to figure what kind of motion you need.  Point to point moves can be accomplished with non-interpolated controllers, but any kind of coordinated motion will need a motion controller that can do true interpolated motion.

[elmer_fud]

I am carrying a load of about 5 pounds and a slower speed is not a major issue for what we are doing.  We want to go with some type of screw drive (belts can harden, fatigue over many years).  We only need point to point motion on an xy grid, so we don't need any sort of fancy controller.  All we want to do is automate the process of examining trays of parts.