Quote Originally Posted by fwm891 View Post
... uses a rack-n-pinion for the long axis. I'm not sure if that has been done on a cost/availability basis or for a given accuracy ...
Just from a couple of things you have said - dimensions in inches, not millimetres, R&P not ballscrew - I would immediately say that this is a US design, even without knowing anything anything else about it. I have a theory that the Americans like R&P because it means that they don't have to use ballscrews, as the best price ballscrews of appropriate quality come from China. Ditto preference for Gecko drives over Leadshine - US not China. I'm not going to make any comment about the Gecko/Leadshine question as I've never used Gecko, but ballscrew for this size machine knocks spots off R&P which is really quite difficult to set up and maintain. It's not as easy as you might think when you take the necessary motor gearing, anti-backlash, etc, problems into account. None of these are insuperable, it's just that there is an obvious and easier method until you get to quite large machines.