Engineering Notes by Oriental Motor

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

Products and technology are only valuable when coupled with skilled people and services to support them. Since 1978, ORIENTAL MOTOR U.S.A. CORP. has been building a service and support system to better serve customers. It is our goal to provide the best product and service from the design phase, through the sale and beyond.

Our blog will feature:

  • Introduction to new products and technologies
  • Motion control basics and application examples
  • Tips for motor selection, programming, and troubleshooting

 

Motor Sizing Basics Part 1: How to Calculate Load Torque

Posted by Johann Tang on Jan 14, 2020 8:14:54 PM

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.

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Topics: Conveyor, AC Motors, Stepper Motors, Alphastep Hybrid Control, Linear & Rotary Actuators, Speed Control, Motor Sizing, BLDC Motors, Servo Motors, Rotary/Index Tables, Motion Control Basics

Incremental Encoder vs Absolute Encoders in Closed-loop Feedback Systems

Posted by Johann Tang on Sep 12, 2019 3:57:57 PM

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.

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

A Brief Overview of the AlphaStep Family

Posted by Johann Tang on Aug 28, 2019 2:37:43 PM

AlphaStep Logo

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).

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

Reactive vs Preventative vs Predictive Maintenance: What are the Differences?

Posted by Johann Tang on Aug 20, 2019 2:58:24 PM

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.  Which method is the most efficient?

The most common method of maintaining a machine after a failure has occurred was the traditionalreactive maintenancemethod.  Realizing the need for improvement, maintenance personnel started to estimate life and replace motion control components before they fail.  This is called the preventive maintenancemethod.  More recently, with the advancement of IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) and real-time availability of status data, another method was born - the predictive maintenance method.

The three maintenance methods have the same goal of eliminating machine downtime but do it differently.

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

How Easy Is It to Build a Robot?

Posted by Johann Tang on Jul 19, 2019 8:31:19 PM

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.

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

Benefits of an Absolute Rack and Pinion System Compared to Other Linear Motion Mechanisms

Posted by Johann Tang on Jul 2, 2019 3:25:24 PM

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.

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

Introduction to the MEXE02 Universal Motion Control Support Software

Posted by Johann Tang on Mar 12, 2019 7:30:00 AM

The MEXE02 support software is a universal motion control and monitor software used with multiple products from Oriental Motor, such as the AZ Series, RK2 Series, BLE2 Series, and BX2 Series.  This article is useful for first-time users to gain a quick understanding of the software and what it can do.

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

Wrap Function: Simplified Position Control for Rotary Indexing in Absolute Coordinates

Posted by Johann Tang on Jan 4, 2019 7:56:17 PM

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 a product feature that can make index table applications less complex to manage.

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

Smart System Performs Reciprocating Motion & Force Sensing Without a PLC or External Sensors

Posted by Johann Tang on Oct 30, 2018 1:38:20 PM

Automation is great for repetitive tasks, such as test fixtures for a process that has to repeated.  In this post, we will explain how to perform a reciprocating motion (back and forth cycles) with a product that does not require a PLC or external presence sensors, which can help speed up design cycles.

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Topics: Torque Limit (Push Motion, Tension Control), Absolute Positioning, Alphastep Hybrid Control, Linear & Rotary Actuators, VIDEOS, Software, Application Examples