The MK3 Italplant Parallel Shaft Indexers are mechanisms which convert a continuous rotary input motion into an intermittent output rotary motion.
The movement transmission is obtained by means of a pair of cams having conjugated profiles, mounted on the input shaft, meshing with a set of roller followers equally spaced with respect to the output shaft. The roller followers are preloaded in order to guarantee the precise positioning of the output shaft during the indexing and dwell.
The cam profiles are fully hardened and ground; the roller followers are mounted on hardened shafts and are supported at both ends.
The profiles are designed to mesh with at least two opposite followers. This feature and the preloading of the rollers eliminate any play thus improving the accuracy and the repeatability of the indexing; shocks and vibrations are also appreciably reduced.
By reversing the input motion the output rotation is also reversed without change of the kinematics characteristics of the mechanism.
The MK3 Indexers are built for a wide range of possible combinations of these parameters thus covering a great many applications.
The MK3 indexers with 1-2-3-4 stations have one index and one dwell for one revolution (360°) of the input shaft.
The MK3 indexers with 6 and 8 stations have two indexes and two dwells or one revolution (360°) of the input shaft.