What's New in Motor Technology?

New communication features, European partnerships and high-performance stepper motors underline PTE's recent motor news coverage. Companies like Nidec Servo Corporation, Piezo Motion and Faulhaber are providing motor precision and reliability requirements for a wide variety of applications. 

Nidec Servo Corporation Launches Brushless DC Motor with Can-Bus

Nidec Servo Corporation has launched a brushless DC motor equipped with Can-Bus (Controller Area Network-Bus), a communication function for vending machines’ product pay-out mechanisms.

Can-Bus, a type of vehicle bus, or an internal communications network that interconnects devices inside a vehicle or a train, enables microcontrollers and devices to communicate with one other without a host computer. Though originally designed for multiplexed in-vehicle electrical wiring that is required to be noise-resistant, Can-Bus is now used widely for devices to communicate control information in such areas as robotics, which includes transportation equipment and machine tools.

Nidec Servo’s latest brushless DC motors are the world’s first of their kind (as of March 30, 2022) with the Can-Bus communication function for product pay-out mechanisms, and the motors can be connected with one another without a host computer. Amid the growing refrigerant restrictions, vending machines are required to be explosion-proof, while demands are growing for brushless DC motors, as they do not generate sparks. It is under those circumstances that the company has added Can-Bus to its motors to enable automatic remote failure diagnosis of them and significant reduction of wiring.

https://www.nidec.com/en/nidec-servo/

Piezo Motion and MEV Elektronik Announce Partnership in Europe

Piezo Motion and MEV Elektronik Service GmbH, a manufacturing representative headquartered in Germany, recently announce a partnership. Piezo Motion is a developer and manufacturer of automation technology. MEV Elektronik Service GmbH serves original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in central and eastern Europe.

MEV Elektronik's family of motion control products.

Piezo Motion’s unique motion control technology will enable MEV Elektronik Service GmbH to provide precision motor solutions and motion control at an affordable price to customers that specialize in electronic components, modules and systems, and optimum technical services. Piezo Motion’s multifaceted rotary and linear motors are built with technology that provides a stable, accurate motor designed specifically for OEMs that require ultimate speed, size and accuracy.

“The solutions from Piezo Motion expand our portfolio in the field of motion control with very high precision products at reasonable costs,” explained Guido Gandolfo, the product line manager for MEV Elektronik GmbH Service. “This enables our customers to offer better solutions without having to massively raise prices. The Piezo Motion products fit very well with the requirements of our existing customers in the fields of medical technology, laboratory automation, biotechnology and optics. Due to the good price-performance ratio, many other applications are also conceivable.”

Piezo Motion motors are used globally for a variety of applications. These include laboratory instruments, biomedicine, optics, semiconductors, nanotechnology industries, and industrial electronic and automotive systems, along with an expanding portfolio of products that combine performance with dramatically lower cost over conventional piezo solutions.

“Our tiny, precise motors bring efficiency and precision to device manufacturers, enabling them to deliver a next generation of products to the market,” said Hassan Kotob, chairman and CEO of Brain Scientific. “Our partnership with MEV Elektronik will unlock a lot of opportunities for customers in Germany and central and eastern Europe.”

piezomotion.com

Faulhaber Offers Latest Stepper Motor

With its speed and torque, the new AM3248 stepper motor from Faulhaber offers performance and dimension benefits. Offering up to 10,000 rpm, it can achieve five times the speed of comparable stepper motors. Combined with a gearhead reduction of 100:1, it supplies a torque of 5 Nm. The motor delivers these values with a diameter of just 32 mm. This makes it ideally suited for a wide range of applications in areas such as aerospace, laboratory automation, large optical systems, the semiconductor industry, robotics and 3D printing.

New AM3248 stepper motor with 10,000 rpm.

The multi-pole, two-phase AM3248 stepper motor performs 48 steps per revolution and offers a very high holding torque of 85mNm. The motor starts with a high speed from the very first step; thanks to its low inertia, it can be used in applications that require very fast acceleration and fast changes of direction. Newly developed large ball bearings further extend the already long service life of this motor type. For its size class, the performance values that it achieves in combination with a 32 GPT gearhead are unrivaled on the market. The motor can also be combined with an IE3 magnetic encoder.

These properties and options make the motor ideally suited for a variety of demanding applications. This includes aligning the solar panels of satellites, for example. The motors move the booms so that the panels are always directly facing the sun. In addition to working precisely and reliably over many years, the motors must also be able to withstand the extreme temperatures in outer space. In the semiconductor industry, very high dynamics and speed are required when positioning the wafers in very confined installation conditions in the machines. This is another application in which the highest level of precision and reliability are essential.

"Our new AM3248 model meets all requirements and is ideally suited for high-performance applications of this kind," explains Thomas Würgler of Faulhaber Precistep. The corporate unit specializing in stepper motors is located in the Swiss city of La Chaux-de-Fonds, known for its watchmaking. "We are able to adapt the product to the requirements of the respective application, even in small production runs. We provide our customers with the entire drive package, including technical advice and support from a single source.”

faulhaber.com