X/Y Drive system hardware.

A. Two different views of the X/Y drive system hardware for one axis. A ThorLabs PT1 linear translator with micrometer (top of image) is coupled to a stepper motor via a flexible shaft (colored blue). The flexible shaft (normally curved but here shown “broken”) is attached to the stepper motor shaft and the micrometer thimble via two cylindrical male/female adapters machined in-house (colored red). For scale: holes on the PT1 stage are located 1′′ apart. B. Image of the assembled X/Y translator pair. Two PT1 stages are mounted at right angles to one another and bolted to the air-table. Cylindrical couplers are colored red. Flexible shafts (colored blue) are 12′′ long (SDP/SI. part number A 7C12-12633). Motors (OrientalMotor.com, part number PK243M-02BA) are colored green. Pitch of the holes on the air-table is 1′′. Electrical cables have been removed from this image for clarity.