Hello everyone! I am a senior in college and in the middle of my senior design project. So a brief rundown of the project is we are designing a gripper to grab and move ceramic filters. We have a CAD design and already have a large chunk of the material ordering done as well. However, I need help selecting a power supply. In our design, we have 3 “Glideforce LACT8P-12V-10 Light-Duty Linear Actuator with Feedback: 25kgf, 8” Stroke (7.8" Usable), 1.1"/s, 12V" all working together in a three point gripper configuration. Along with some other smaller electronics, what would be an adequate power supply needed? I know that these actuators are rated at 1-3A depending on the load. I just don’t want to buy a 9 Amp supply if we don’t need it. BTW the budget is under $300 but the lesser the better.
Hello.
You should generally size your power supply based on the maximum current you expect your system to draw at any given moment. Those actuators can draw between 1.2A and 3.2A each, depending on your application. Please note, however, that the actuators can briefly draw close to their full stall current when abruptly started or on a sudden change of direction, but these current spikes can be dampened if you take steps to limit the acceleration of the actuator.
It sounds like all 3 of the actuators will probably be under load at the same time in your system, so if you want to be safe, you should probably choose a power supply that can handle 10A or more (to give some buffer for the rest of your system). I do not have a particular recommendation for a power supply like that.
Another option would be to split up the system so each actuator is powered from a separate power supply.
You might try doing some tests to see how much current the actuators are drawing in your system to see how much you will actually need.
Brandon