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

Selecting a gearhead for a stepper motor is like picking out the right shoes for the occasion. Sure, you can wear Air Jordans on a football field, but they're not better than a pair of regular cleats. Similarly, you can use a harmonic gearhead to drive a unidirectional conveyor, but you may be overpaying for its zero-backlash capability when you don't have to.  Picking the right gearhead can ensure the best balance between performance and budget.

Gearheads play a crucial role in motor performance optimization. Each type of gear offers its own features and characteristics, and the gear ratio alters a motor's output torque and speed. By carefully selecting the optimal gear type and ratio, engineers can fine-tune motor performance to align precisely with the application requirements.

Robotics automation can be easier to build than you think.  Here's an example of how a 5-axis SCARA robot can be built in-house with off-the-shelf products.

Many motor manufacturers offer a motor sizing tool to help with product selection, but if you don't know how to use it, you may still end up paying for it in the long run.

Which type of electric motor do you size for your conveyor, XYZ table, or robot?  Before you select one, you must understand the characteristics of each type of motor in the market.

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.

Stepper motors vibrate.  It's what they do.  To minimize motor vibration, first we need to understand where they come from.