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

Proper grounding is necessary for electrical devices for different reasons, but why do we do it?

Knowing how to use a product properly can make a huge difference in its performance and life.  For example, knowing how to maintain cast iron pans properly can make them last longer.  With electric motors, understanding the factors that affect motor life is the first step to extending life and decreasing costs in the long run.

Oriental Motor offers many pre-assembled geared motors for quality, consistency, and reliability.   In addition, gearheads from our industry partners increase the torque range of our motors further to accommodate more applications.  Here are some advantages of geared motors.

For someone who has never had experience wiring I/O for motion control, it can be scary the first time.  If devices are not wired correctly, it can cause a range of issues from a motor simply not doing what's expected to irreversible product damage.  I still get that nervous feeling before I press the START button on a demo.  Murphy's Law, anyone?

Besides load torque, acceleration torque, speed, and load inertia, overlooking certain sizing parameters during the motor sizing process can literally make or break your machine.

Now that we understand the calculations behind load torque and load inertia, we're a little closer to motor selection.  You might be wondering why I separated load torque and acceleration torque calculations.  That's because in order to calculate for acceleration torque, load inertia and speed must be calculated first. 

Other than torque or speed, another factor should be considered when sizing motors.  

Proper sizing of a motor requires that 3 criteria must be met: torque, load inertia, and speed.  For the first part of this Motor Sizing Basics series, I will be explaining what load torque is, how to calculate it for specific application examples, and how it fits into the torque requirement for the application.

An AC motor is not working like it's supposed to.  What do you do?  Before replacing the motor, here are three ways to start troubleshooting your AC motor with a circuit tester.

For a permanent-split capacitor type AC motor (also known as capacitor start and run AC motors), a capacitor is required for proper operation.  Enjoy a cup of coffee as we explain why.