Company Press World's finest motor encoder for world's finest audio equipment
10 December 2009
Zettlex encoders chosen for Continuum Audio's turntables
Continuum Audio in Melbourn, Australia make the world's finest record turntables and audio equipment. To the audio purist, playing a vinyl record on Continuum's products represents the ultimate listening experience. See www.continuumaudiolabs.com
In order to ensure that the turntable rotates at exactly 33.333 r.p.m., Continuum chose Zettlex encoders in their motor drive because of their accuracy, stability, light weight and zero noise transmission. Since the audio quality of a record turntable is heavily influenced by the quality of the turntable's bearings, a key feature of the Zettlex design was that the encoder has no bearings of its own and so cannot interfere with the ultra smooth running of the turntable. Similarly, the encoder's performance was unaffected by a large, adjacent motor and zero noise was emitted from the encoder in to the critical analogue signal lines.
Continuum's products will be on show at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, January 2010.
Mark Doehmann, Continuum's Technical Director comments "Anybody who knows anything about motor control will vouch that getting a direct drive motor to run at 33.333 r.p.m. with zero wow or flutter is technically very challening. Add to that a requirement for zero signal interference, zero influence on rotational smoothness and very tight space constraints, the choice of a suitable encoder is pretty limited. We had to go to the other side of the world to find the solution but Zettlex delivered the new encoders on-time, to budget and at a competitive price."
Darran Kreit, Zettlex's Technical Director comments "Our customers from the defence, aerospace and medical sectors often have some pretty extreme requirements. Initially, we were surprised by the level of technical demands for a record player, but the requirements were definitely real and I'm pleased to say our encoders met or exceeded them all. Zettlex is proud to have been involved in the development of this fantastic product from Continuum."
NOTES TO EDITORS:- Zettlex is a sensors company.Our non-contact position sensors measure accurately & reliably even in harsh conditions - hence our motto - 'Precision in the Extreme'. We
- Design & make position sensors
- Supply sensor components - notably integrated circuits for inductive position sensors
- Develop non-contact sensing solutions to customer requirements.
Unique technology and laminar, printed construction enables inductive sensors with no contacts, no bearings, no delicate parts, no maintenance, no bother.....just accurate measurements - all day, every day.
We sell our sensors to OEMs and system integrators in a range of sectors. About half of our business is for safety related or safety critical control systems and we are familiar with the demanding requirements of industrial, aerospace, defence, oil & gas sectors. We can supply fully documented and qualified sensing solutions to DO-254 and DO-178.
Applications include position measurement, user interfaces, servo controls & motor encoders. This covers linear transducers and rotary encoders as well as measurement of 2D displacement, 3D displacement, multi-turn angle, tilt, weight, pressure, vibration, strain and flow.
Zettlex inductive position sensors are an economical, lightweight and robust alternative to potentiometers, optical encoders, rotary encoders, resolvers, RVDTs, LVDTs, magnetic sensors and capacitive encoders.
Zettlex is ISO 9001 and BS EN 13980 certified for the manufacture of position sensors including intrinsically safe ATEX transmitters and position feedback controls for potentially explosive environments.
