Historically, worm gears have been known as the most common type of gears used in a right angle gearhead.  Their low cost and robust construction have been sufficient for general purpose applications.  However, they are inefficient at slower speeds (higher reduction ratios), produce a lot of heat, take up a lot of space, and require maintenance.  As efficiency standards became increasingly important globally, another type of gear is being adopted for right angle gearheads.

Topics: AC Motors, Speed Control, BLDC Motors, Gearheads, Hypoid Gear

In the world of industrial robotics, there are several types of robots typically offering multiple axes of motion for tasks such as parts assembly, material handling, or pick and place operations.  These include articulated robots, cartesian/gantry robots, SCARA robots, and Delta robots.  Variations of end effectors such as grippers, welders or part rotators can be mounted on the end of the arm to perform different tasks.  Depending on number of axes or load capacity, costs can easily add up.  Limiting the operation range for these robotic axes of motion is an easy way to prevent costly problems or safety issues later.

Topics: Stepper Motors, Robotics, Absolute Positioning, Alphastep Hybrid Control, VIDEOS, Software

The MEXE02 support software is a universal motion control and monitor software used with multiple stored data type products from Oriental Motor, such as the stepper motor drivers from AZ Series, AR Series, and RK2 Series, or brushless DC motor drivers from BLE2 Series and BX2 Series.  This post is useful for first-time users to gain a quick understanding of the software and what it can do.

Topics: Stepper Motors, Linear & Rotary Actuators, Speed Control, VIDEOS, BLDC Motors, Software, Servo Motors

For applications where torque needs to be limited, an external mechanical torque limiter is typically required in addition to the motor system.  When the torque exceeds the limit, the torque limiter will either decouple the load or limit the torque by slipping.  An electric motor system's built-in torque limit function can simplify machine designs by eliminating this extra component.

Topics: Torque Limit (Push Motion), Speed Control, VIDEOS, Capping, BLDC Motors

A driver is a must-have for any stepper motor.  In a stepper motor system, a driver controls how the motor operates based on signals received from the controller.  It is responsible for sending current through various phases in a stepper motor and also regulates the motor current (torque) and step resolution.  With recent trends of minimizing machine footprint, finding space to install drivers could be challenging.

Standard Stepper Motor System Configuration

Topics: Stepper Motors, Stepper Motor Drivers, VIDEOS

Robotic grippers are typically used to grip parts for transport.  The driving force behind a gripper can be pneumatic, hydraulic, or electric.  Which type is best for gripping?

Topics: Torque Limit (Push Motion), Robotics, Speed Control, VIDEOS, BLDC Motors

With recent trends focusing on improving engineering efficiency, many products have been developed to specifically help shorten design cycles for machine automation.  Part of improving efficiency is making products easier to use, so additional time and resources can be spent elsewhere.  This post describes an example of a product feature that can make index table applications less complex to manage.

Topics: Stepper Motors, Absolute Positioning, Linear & Rotary Actuators, VIDEOS, Software

In the market of electric motors, there are products designed for general purpose applications, and there are motors designed for specialized applications, such as automated guided vehicles (AGVs) or autonomous mobile robots (AMRs).  While standard, general purpose motors work for most applications such as factory automation, sometimes, it may help shorten your design cycle by going with a motor system that already offers the features that you are planning to implement into your design.  In this post, we will summarize some of these features.

Topics: Robotics, Speed Control, Motor Sizing, BLDC Motors, Gearheads

There are many stepper motor manufacturers in the market place, but there are even more driver manufacturers.  The crowded market place provides many standard product options for customers to build their motion control system just the way they like it. 

However, if the best possible performance is desired, it would be difficult to beat a tested combination of a specific motor and driver from the same manufacturer.  By combining R&D knowledge from both motors and drivers, unique product features can be developed to improve the performance further.  

In this post, we will discuss 3 main advantages of using a CVD driver with a PKP Series stepper motor.  There's also a video at the bottom of this post that summarizes the features.

Topics: Stepper Motors, Stepper Motor Drivers, Vibration Control, Smooth Drive, VIDEOS

Stepper motors are popular for their ability to position accurately as well as their ease of use.  Both the amount of rotation and the speed are controlled easily with the same digital square wave pulse signal.  Unlike servo motors, stepper motors do not need an encoder to operate.  Example applications of stepper motors are CNC machines, index tables, robotics, scanners, and more recently, 3D printers.

Topics: Stepper Motors, Motor Sizing, VIDEOS