12v linear actuators offer a high level of power, and are particularly useful when you need to automate the raising or lowering of some component of your car, such as the hood or trunk. Linear actuators are also often used in acoustic engineering, to move amp racks to which amplifiers are mounted by their faces or via slot grooves.
Typically, a 12v linear actuator will consist of a DC motor, which in turn will be connected to a screw drive. Via a set of gears, the rotation of the screw by the motor will move it up or down the threads of the bolt on which it’s set, creating a linear motion that can be transmitted to other components via connecting rods.
12v linear actuators are, despite their relatively slow speed, extremely strong. It’s necessary to install limit switches in most of them, as, if whatever you’re attempting to move runs out of moving space before the actuator achieves full extension, that often won’t be enough to stop the motion of the actuator. Linear actuators are, in fact, quite capable of tearing amp racks apart should the design suffer from a flaw in this department.
The sheer electromechanical hardiness and reliability of 12v linear actuators in terms of force output makes them ideal for rugged situations, as well as those in which miscalculation could lead to losses in terms of millions of dollars or, worse yet, human life. If one of the Hubble telescope’s numerous actuators fails, critical observational systems and control flaps may also fail to extend, resulting in a last-minute screw up that could prevent incredible sightings, such as the recent Hubble-Linear set of observations. The Linear comet’s explosion revealed, by way of its surviving fragments, a great deal of information regarding the comet’s interior, and hence about asteroids and, in some ways, the very nature of most celestial bodies. To have missed such an observation would have been a tragedy for human knowledge, even as, were the actuators responsible for the sealing of NASA shuttles’ airlocks less reliable than they are, the world might have suffered a tragic loss in terms of the astronauts on board.
Aside from the functionality of the Hubble linear motors in the highest of heights of space, 12v linear actuators are also known for their undiminished capabilities under extremely high pressures, such as those experienced during sub sea repair missions. It’s this that makes them such a vital electromechanical component in the remotely controlled servo robots so often sent into environments unsuitable for human divers, such as zones surrounding natural gas vents and oil drilling sites. Without them, sub sea repair missions would be fraught with peril, and call for a much longer timeline due to the constant need for divers to replenish their air supplies.
Companies particularly known for producing high quality, high reliability 12v linear actuators include Parker Hannefin, which owns and manages historic brands such as Denison, the company that, way back in 1925, under the second generation stewardship of Bill Denison Jr., produced the first ever hydraulic machine, a simple device designed to push a cart full of clay sculptures through a kiln.