Welcome to Oriental Motor's "Engineering Notes" Blog:

The best motor is the one that meets the application requirements.  However, when both servo motors and stepper motors satisfy the basic requirements of a positioning application, it's important to have a deeper understanding of the two technologies to make an informed decision.

In this article,  I will summarize the differences between servo motor systems and stepper motor systems.

In this blog post, I will explain how to easily program a timed pressing operation with our MEXE02 universal product support software.  This example works for any products included in the AlphaStep AZ Series family, which also includes other series that use the same technology and software.

No matter how many functions a product offers, without an intuitive, easy-to-use software, those functions can be difficult to implement.

Remember the days when we used to go to in-person events, such as trade shows?  Robot demos have always generated a lot of foot traffic in booths.  What's better to illustrate the synchronism of closed-loop stepper motors than 3 motors working together to create one specific motion?

STO, or "Safe Torque Off", is a dedicated, built-in safety circuit function that makes safety easier to manage for motion devices, such as an industrial robot.  It is part of the overall safety system designed to prevent injuries or damage.

A gripper is typically an end effector that is installed at the end of a robotic arm or on a cartesian robot and can be used to grip parts in order to transfer them from one location to another.  However, there's more to it than just closing the jaws to pinch a part.  

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 at what we do.

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

The terms "absolute" and "incremental" come up frequently in the world of position control.  The exact meaning can be the type of motion done by the motor in programming terms or the type of feedback device used with the motor.  In this article, we will focus on the differences between an incremental closed-loop feedback system and an absolute closed-loop feedback system.

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.  This post explains the unique technologies offered within the AlphaStep family of products and summarizes the numerous integrated options available.  It also can serve as a website navigation guide (video added).