Manual Stage Selector
Enter your requirements and get a recommended bearing type and actuator, with reasoning and typical specifications.
Choosing a manual translation stage requires matching bearing type and actuator to the combination of travel range, resolution requirement, payload, orientation, and operating environment — a decision tree that is rarely obvious from first principles. This tool encodes the standard selection logic for four bearing classes: flexure stages (≤5 mm travel, sub-100 nm resolution, no lubricants — preferred for vacuum and cleanroom), crossed-roller bearing stages (≤1 µm resolution, 1–2 µm/25 mm straightness), ball bearing stages (general-purpose, ~1 µm sensitivity), and dovetail slides (>100 mm travel or lowest cost). For each recommendation it provides typical straightness, sensitivity, repeatability, and load capacity, pairs it with the appropriate actuator (differential micrometer, standard micrometer, or fine adjustment screw), and issues environment-specific warnings for vacuum, cleanroom, vertical, and inverted mounting.
Resolution requirement of 0.5000 µm demands sub-micron bearing sensitivity. Crossed-roller bearings provide <1 µm sensitivity with 3–4× the stiffness of ball bearings.
Resolution of 0.5000 µm requires a differential micrometer (0.07–0.5 µm per division). Standard micrometers are limited to ~1 µm.
- Crossed-roller stages require mounting surfaces flat to <2 µm for full precision.