In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I thought I'd change gears (pun intended) and write about what Oriental Motor is thankful for.  

First, we are thankful for our customers for being our customers and helping us grow to be a globally reputable motion control manufacturer.  Second, we are thankful for the awards and recognition we've received over the years.  It's always good to know that we're doing a good job and these accolades definitely serve as motivation to become even better.

While we are grateful with these awards and recognition, our greatest satisfaction comes from applying our award-winning products to solve motion control challenges for our customers.

Topics: Stepper Motors, Absolute Positioning, Alphastep Hybrid Control

AC motors have the same operating theory, but by changing its design a little, you can modify its characteristics to suit certain applications better.  In the last post, I focused on AC induction motors for unidirectional applications.  In this post, I will explain what makes AC reversible motors and AC electromagnetic brake motors ideal for start/stop, reversing, or vertical applications, and demonstrate how to operate them.

Topics: AC Motors, VIDEOS, Application Examples

AC motors are simple to control, rugged, and cost effective for general purpose applications.  These reasons are why they are the most popular type of electric motor across various industries.  In this post, we will briefly introduce induction motors and demonstrate how to operate these motors.

Topics: AC Motors, VIDEOS, Application Examples

Do you know how to use this graph?

Topics: VIDEOS, Cooling Fans

Stepper motors vibrate.  It's what they do.

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

The terms "absolute" and "incremental" comes up frequently in the world of position control.  The exact meaning changes according to the context they are used in.  For example, absolute and incremental motion can refer to the type of motion done by the motor either by relating it to the absolute home position or the last known position.  Absolute and incremental feedback can also refer to the type of feedback device being used with the motor.  In this blog post, we will focus on the feedback system and hopefully clarify some differences for you.

Topics: Stepper Motors, Absolute Positioning, Alphastep Hybrid Control, Linear & Rotary Actuators, VIDEOS

The word, "AlphaStep", describes Oriental Motor's patented Hybrid Control technology, which offers improved stepper motor performance by sensing the rotor position and automatically switching between open-loop and closed-loop operation when necessary.  First introduced in 1998 as the AS Series, the ushered in a new age where stepper motors can emulate servo performance at a lower cost.  Over the years, we improved the AlphaStep Hybrid Control technology with 2 major advancements to close the gap between stepper motors and servo motors even further.

This post explains the unique technologies offered within the AlphaStep family of products then summarizes the numerous integrated options available.  It also serves as a website navigation guide.  

Topics: Stepper Motors, Stepper Motor Drivers, Absolute Positioning, Alphastep Hybrid Control, Linear & Rotary Actuators, VIDEOS, Gearheads, Software, Network, Application Examples

Along with the advancement of industrial technology, the method of maintaining motion control components of a machine, such as motors, drives, and sensors, has also evolved.  The most common method of maintaining a machine after a failure has occurred was the traditional method.  Realizing the need for improvement, maintenance personnel started to estimate life and replace motion control components before they fail.  More recently, with the advancement of IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) and real-time availability of status data, another method was born.  While the two newer methods have the same goal in eliminating machine downtime, only one does it efficiently.

Topics: Stepper Motors, Stepper Motor Drivers, Linear & Rotary Actuators, VIDEOS, Network, Application Examples

Robot adoption is increasing in many industries due to global efforts in reducing long term costs, maintaining quality, and freeing up time for humans to do "human" tasks.  For example, by using a robot to clean floors or restock shelves in a supermarket, human employees can spend more time helping or selling to their customers.  A company can either tap into this robotic trend by buying ready-made robots, or by making their own with less cost.  If engineering resources are limited, selecting the right components can reduce the difficulty and time for the build.

Topics: Stepper Motors, Stepper Motor Drivers, Robotics, Absolute Positioning, Alphastep Hybrid Control, Linear & Rotary Actuators, Motor Sizing, VIDEOS, Gearheads, Software, Application Examples

There are many mechanisms that convert rotary motion of an electric motor to linear motion, such as belt/chain drives, screw drives, rack & pinion drives and even CAM drives.  Each mechanism offers advantages and disadvantages. Choosing the right technology can help increase load, speed, travel distance, or positioning accuracy.

Topics: Absolute Positioning, Alphastep Hybrid Control, Linear & Rotary Actuators, VIDEOS, Vertical Lifts, Application Examples