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

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.

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.

Servo motor systems are expensive but great for demanding applications that require high speed, peak torque, or feedback.  Stepper motors are cost-effective but do not offer the peace of mind of feedback.  For designs that do not need the bells and whistles of servo motor systems, there is another option.

The BLV Series R Type brushless DC motor and compact driver not only reduces the size and weight of the original BLV Series driver but offer an upgrade to the motor as well.  This blog post uses videos to explain the features offered by the BLV Series R Type.

The best motor is the one that meets the application requirements.  However, when both servo motors and stepper motors satisfy the basic requirements of a positioning application, it's important to have a deeper understanding of the two technologies to make an informed decision.

In this blog post,  we will summarize the differences between servo motor systems and stepper motor systems.

The BLV Series is one of two DC-input brushless motor speed control systems we offer.  While a brushless motor with hall-effect sensor feedback provides constant torque, wide speed range, and speed regulation, the BLV driver offers unique functions designed for mobile robots, such as low battery operation and ramp operation.

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?

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.

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).

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.