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Float-A-Shaft® Right-Angle Gear Box Introduced To Milling Industry
Tolomatic’s first product, the Float-A-Shaft®, was designed to improve efficiency in the way the flour and milling industry packaged bags of flour. Burton Toles designed a Bagger/Sealing machine using the right-angle gear box Float-A-Shaft design, sold and installed it to the milling industry. Its successful performance created demand from other manufacturers as well and boosted Tolomatic sales. Recognizing the problems facing other industrial equipment suppliers and manufacturers, Burton Toles set out to find other solutions. |  |
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 | Cable Cylinder Emerged As The First
Rodless Cylinder Introduction
In 1955, Tolomatic introduced the first rodless cylinder “The Cable Cylinder” to the industrial world. It offered a huge space-saving advantage to industrial manufacturing companies because the cable cylinder could perform the same mechanical function in half the space. With the use of a cable and an internal piston mechanism the cumbersome rods used in cylinders currently available at the time were eliminated allowing the Cable Cylinder to produce stroke lengths totally contained within the cylinder itself. |
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Power Transmission Products Were Introduced
With the advent of the Cable Cylinder, Tolomatic became known as the innovator and leader in the fluid power industry for developing products to meet the specific needs of customer requests. Products that soon followed on the heels of the Cable Cylinder were Caliper Disc Brakes and Disc
Cone Clutches. |  |
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 | Tolomatic Introduces Band Cylinders
and Linear Slides
After the introduction of its power transmission products, a whole new line of fluid power products started to emerge. In 1985, Tolomatic introduced the Band Cylinder, a patented design of rodless cylinder with the same space-saving characteristics as the cable cylinder but allowed loads to be directly attached to the cylinder for more control over bending moments. Then in 1990 came the Linear Slide— a pre-engineered, self-supporting slide actuator that guides and supports loads the entire length of the stroke. |
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Tolomatic Introduces Magnetically Coupled
Cylinders and Slides
In 1991, rod cylinder slides—were introduced along with Magnetically Coupled Cylinder and Slides, each meeting a specific need in the fluid power industry focusing on customer requests and available competition offerings. Tol-O-Matic is now the only manufacturer that makes all four types of rodless actuators—Cable, Band, Linear Slides and Magnetically Coupled. |  |
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 | In August of 1995, Tolomatic added to its Band Cylinder product line the BC3 Series™ Band Cylinder which utilizes a patent pending recirculating ball-bearing system, combined with a carrier and bearing rail system that allows load carrying capacities of up to 2008 lbs. Tolomatic also introduced the U-Block to its line of rod cylinder slides offering a cost-effective slide with an extruded housing.
Then in April of 1996, the BC4 Series™ Band Cylinder was introduced to Tolomatic’s wide line of rodless actuators, offering the lowest possible breakaway with high bending moments for applications where loads are guided and supported. |
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Tolomatic Enters Into The Electrical Linear Motion and Controls Market
In October of 1992, Tolomatic entered a whole new realm of marketing opportunities with the introduction of electric motion control products. As the electric actuator industry started to emerge, Tolomatic's engineers utilized existing lead screw/belt technology and combined it with Tolomatic rodless actuator technology to introduce the first consumer configurable electrically operated rodless actuator. Designed for precise motion controlled movements, the electric product line offered application engineers a wide selection of solutions to their design problems. |  |
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 | Electric Product Line Expanded
Tolomatic expanded its electrical product offerings in 1998 to include a line of brushless servo control systems -— motors, controllers, controller/drives and drives — all compatible with its complete line of screw-drive and belt-drive actuators. Tolomatic's Windows based Sizing and Selection Software made complete systems easy to size and select. All Electric Systems contain all the components necessary — actuator, controls, motors, motor mountings, coupling and cables for fast and easy installation. |
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Rod Screw Actuators Introduced
Introduced in August of 1998, the RSA Series of Rod Screw Actuators complemented the electric rodless actuator line. These actuators offered a wider selection of body sizes with higher thrust capacities and broader range of motor choices than any other competing line. |  |
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 | Guided Screw Actuators Introduced
In May of 1999, Tolomatic introduced the GSA Series Guided Screw Actuator which combined the precise, repeatable positioning, high thrust capacity and flexibility of the rod screw actuator with a self-contained load guidance and support system. Option rich and available in a wide variety of body and screw sizes, the addition of the GSA Guided Screw Actuator increased the number of different styles of electric actuator catalog offerings to five. |
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Axiom Drive Joins the Electric Product Line-up
June of 1999 brought another addition to the line of electric motion control products. Axiom® — a drive completely designed and developed by Tolomatic that utilized state-of-the-art DSP controlled digital vector commutation with easy-to-use Windows® based set-up and configuration software. These drives offered accurate high bandwidth control of torque producing current for better efficiency and more torque over the full speed range than traditional sine drives.
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 | TruTrack™ Screw and Belt-drive Actuators Introduced
In June of 2000, Tolomatic released the TruTrack line of screw and belt-drive actuators, making a total of six different styles of body and guidance systems available in the line of electric linear actuators. The TruTrack line offered higher thrust and velocity with a lower deflection rate than any other Tolomatic actuator offering. These actuators combined flatness and straightness specifications within 0.0002 inches per inch with high direct and moment load resistance and high payload capacity. Combined together with the Axiom® drive, this actuator/drive combination is capable of delivering high performance with efficient operation. |
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Tolomatic releases the AxiomPlus Controller/Drive
Tolomatic streamlined the arduous task of buying, programming, wiring and combining a variety of control devices and refined a pre-engineered solution — the Axiom®Plus Controller/Drive. Easy to set-up, use and program, the AxiomPlus combines a PLC and controller with their Axiom drive to create an all-in-one motion control system. Easy-to-use, Windows-based programming software defines point-to-point moves with a click of the mouse without learning new flavors of programming language.
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 | Tolomatic Enters the Automotive Spot
Welding Market
In 2002, Tolomatic introduced its first electric servo cylinder for the automotive spot welding market. This integrated actuator, the HT series, featured an integrated motor/actuator design. It is used on the most demanding automotive welding applications. In 2003, Tolomatic launched the SW series of integrated servo motor based on extensive voice-of-the-customer input. The SW is a patented motor/actuator design used on servo weld guns for robotic and pedestal welding applications. In 2004, Tolomatic was awarded a multi-million dollar order to supply an entire automotive plant with electric servo weld guns...all powered by Tolomatic actuators. |
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Custom product challenges are always welcome
In addition to offering the broadest line of rodless actuators, rod cylinder slides, electric linear motion actuators and controls plus Power Transmission products, Tolomatic specializes in creating "special" products for applications requiring special solutions not available with standard components. Whether it is a modification to one of our catalog products or a completely new customized design for a specific application requirement, Tolomatic will take the challenge. Often called upon to create products for customers with very specific needs...needs that other manufacturers cannot provide in a timely fashion...Tolomatic is making a name for itself as an innovative company with the resources to design and build solutions for a wide variety of linear motion applications.
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 | Resources For The Competitive Edge
Tolomatic is located in west suburban Minneapolis in a 100,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art facility with future expansion capabilities. Tolomatic Distributors and their customers are encouraged to tour the facility to experience first hand the company philosophy and dedication to providing the best products, service and delivery.
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Skilled machinists in the on-site model shop and engineering lab are capable of making specialized tooling or prototypes. All Tolomatic products are put through rigorous testing in its engineering lab. New products are continually tested and opportunities to create customer “specials” are welcomed. On-site manufacturing and assembly facilities, complete with the latest in CNC machinery offer flexibility in providing the best solutions to design problems which keep results cost-competitive. Highly trained mechanical, electrical and application design engineers together with a dedicated sales staff create efficient, leading edge solutions to customer needs. Working together with Tolomatic distributors and their customers, they can provide workable solutions for application requirements.
Tolomatic offers a 5-day standard delivery with express orders shipped in 2 days. Some products and all parts are available with 1-day delivery. Tolomatic is an ISO 9001:2000 certified firm. Every 6 months quality system audits are performed to ensure quality standards are enforced. Tolomatic believes its ISO certification will provide the framework and foundation on which the company will build their business to meet the challenge of ever increasing customer expectations. It will ensure that the necessary controls and disciplines remain in place as they continue their quest for excellence in everything they do.
Since the inception of the Float-A-Shaft® in 1954, it has been and will continue to remain Tolomatic’s philosophy to find out what the customer wants and provide it. Quality products, at a competitive price with an unconditional customer satisfaction guarantee. |
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