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

Robots are increasing in demand due to continuing labor shortages and the push for error-less efficiency in manufacturing.  In the meantime, other companies are falling behind because they either do not have the capital or engineering know-how to implement robotics automation.  While you can buy a robot and pay someone else to program it to do what you want, building and programming your own robot can be easier than you think.

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?

The viscosity change in liquids can vary the torque required for mixing.  For AC asynchronous motors such as AC induction motors, the rated speed is affected by load torque fluctuations, which may cause inconsistency in the final product.  Is there a better motor for the job?

For automated factories, motor failures mean lost production and lost revenue.  Being able to identify the specific issue in advance and its location is critical to maintaining production efficiency.  To be successful, extra sensors must be added to detect abnormalities.  There may be an easier way.

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.  

Along with the advancement of industrial technology, maintenance methods of motion control components of a machine, such as motors, drives, and sensors, have also evolved.

Most of us still use the traditional "reactive" maintenancemethod in many aspects of life, such as replacing a dishwasher in your kitchen.  People don't buy a dishwasher until theirs doesn't work anymore.  Well, for factories that rely on consistent uptime for production, this wasn't the best strategy.  Realizing the need for improvement, maintenance personnel started to estimate life and replace motion control components before they failed.  This is called the "preventive" maintenancemethod, which also wasn't a perfect strategy for cost.  More recently, with the advancement of IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) technologies and real-time availability of status data, another method was made possible - the "predictive" maintenance method.

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 building a robot.