I know a guy who has a very unusual requirement. He needs to move about 200 pounds and control its vertical location to about a precision of 10 microns. He normally controls items with a stepper motor with optical encoder outputs, but he knows of nothing that can handle anything like his weight requirements. FWIW, he only has to move the thing (whatever it is, dunno) about 2-3 inches.
He's a research scientist with a large optical lab, in case you were wondering.
Anyone got any leads on hardware he might use? Hopefully on the surplus market?
Grant