All Axioplan 2 Microscopes have the new designed Dual Plate Guidance (Patent) system.
With this design we have significantly improved the short and long therm stability of the focussing mechanism (long flourescence photographs, or time lapse video recordings).
Plates (1) and (3) are connected and move up and down on the four cross roller bearings of the fixed middle plate (2), providing stability in x, y and z. Conventional focussing mechanism use only a single fixed plate equipped with dual roller bearings. This new design was more susceptible to thermal and mechanical stress and instability.

The Harmonic Drive Gear Box™
Extremely high Reduction Ratio Capabilities
Combined with very Accurate Motion

All Axioplan 2 with motorized focus have the Harmonic Drive Gear Box™ system.
From the figure you will see that the drive has essentially three parts. A full 360º rotation of the wave generator (1) results in displacement of two teeth on the flexspline (3) in relation to the circular spline (2).
This outstanding transmission ration directlly impacts the high resulution of the focussing drive.

Rotating the focussing knob, rotates an encoder disc. The encoder measures the amount of rotation of the focussing knob by counting the number of lines printed on the encoder disc as they pass through the encoder. This information is sent to the focus motor controller.
Together with the programmed focusing sensitivity this information is translated into a movement command for the DC focus motor. Voltage is applied to the focus motor and the motor starts to move.
Attached to the shaft of the focus motor is another encoder, which feeds back information to the focus motor controller telling it the actual position of the motor. Once the focus motor reaches its destination, the focus motor controller switches off the voltage to the focus motor, and the movement stops.

This makes it possible to have 40 different resolution levels in total which one can choose from to select the focussing sensitivity for a specific objective. Individual adjustment for an objective can be achieved by the user. Therefore smooth and precise movement of the focussing drive is garanteed. The coarse focus is set to be five times of the fine focus which is programmed as an default but it can be also adjusted to the factors 1x to 40x.

Specifications:

• Resolution: 50 nm Minimum Step Size
• Reproducibitity: 100 nm
• Drift: 0
• Reversing Backlash: 300 nm

If you have any suggestions and/or requests please contact [email protected].