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.  First introduced in 1998 as the AS Series, the ushered in a new age where stepper motors can emulate servo performance at a lower cost.  Over the years, we improved the AlphaStep Hybrid Control technology with 2 major advancements to close the gap between stepper motors and servo motors even further.

This post explains the unique technologies offered within the AlphaStep family of products then summarizes the numerous integrated options available.  It also serves as a website navigation guide.  

Along with the advancement of industrial technology, the method of maintaining motion control components of a machine, such as motors, drives, and sensors, has also evolved.  The most common method of maintaining a machine after a failure has occurred was the traditional method.  Realizing the need for improvement, maintenance personnel started to estimate life and replace motion control components before they fail.  More recently, with the advancement of IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) and real-time availability of status data, another method was born.  While the two newer methods have the same goal in eliminating machine downtime, only one does it efficiently.