Friday, March 23, 2007

Putting it together--integrated motors and drives

N AUTOMATION HISTORY, THE motor goes all the way back. Every so often, changes and advancements in technology allowed for major new motor products, but for the most part the process of improving motor offerings has been incremental.

When electronic variable-speed drives came to the marketplace, they gave automation designers a whole new direction-and in the beginning they gave maintenance and service personnel a whole new headache. To say the least, some early industrial electronics were finicky and unreliable.

Time has passed and technology has improved. Advancements in microelectronics, microprocessors, and power electronics have all improved the capability and reliability of electronic drives.

Every year it seems that drives have been decreasing in size in the same manner that computer microprocessing power has increased in size, so it just seemed obvious that eventually the motor and the drive would come together.
ntegrated motor/drive products seem to break down into two categories.

First is the speed/torque combination. These units put a speed controller as part of a motor and would propose to handle the majority of motor drive applications.

The second category handles positioning applications. These units combine a motor, position feedback, power control, and motion control to cover motion applications.

Applications

Speed control units generally would be used in any application where previously a motor had been connected to a variable-speed drive. The drive was mounted either locally or in a remote control panel.

Roddy Yates, product manager for Baldor Electric Co., says that Baldor has been marketing its SmartMotor product line since 1995. The product was originally developed for the fan and pump market. It has really become more utilized, however, in the singlemotor applications, such as small machines.

According to Yates, Baldor is "committed to the product line" which is growing at a rate of "about 3% per year." This experience fits with a reasonable conclusion that a motor/drive combination would sell most easily where it would be the only motor in the application, effectively reducing the number of components for electricians to purchase and install.

At TB Woods Sons Co., Rick Kirkpatrick indicated that their product, the IMD, has been available since 1998. Kirkpatrick says that they have had some success with "direct OEM sales." However, they see what others have seen-that the traditional thinking patterns of separating the motor and drive with the drive in the control panel continue.

Kirkpatrick also says that customers have "not yet transitioned fully to this new thinking." TB Woods has seen more success with their European product release, where they believe the service personnel are more interested in a "higher-tech" product. They also stress that the cost analysis needs to be handled in an honest manner to include not only component costs but labor and time costs as well.

Proving that the concept applies to all sizes of motors, Bodine Electric Co. has the INTEGRAmotor product line. Rod Maksinovic of Bodine indicates that smaller electronics packages have promoted their concept of a product line that is easy to apply and while Bodine has "had some good success stories," Maksinovic believes that it will be "a year or two before wide acceptance." This sentiment seems to be widespread. There is also the feeling, however, that the economic sluggishness in capital equipment may be affecting product sales.

Integrated systems

Certainly, the more complex catego

INTELLIGENT MOTORS continued

ry of products and perhaps the "hotter" in terms of technology are the integrated motion systems. Machine builders and designers have long been involved in applying motion products. These products, including servomotors, controllers, and power amplifiers, have been steadily decreasing in size, yet increasing in technological features.

Because most motion applications require a significant level of accuracy, manufacturers have attempted to provide a complete line of products, which would include the motor, a coordinated power amp, a motion controller, and some sort of feedback device such as an encoder. Designers could choose from these and feel fairly confident that their application would be successful.

However, these still required some control panel building and special wiring or cabling. The integrated motion products seem to be trying to resolve some of these issues. Now on your servomotor you have an encoder, a power amplifier, and a motion controller all built together.

Animatics of Santa Clara, Calif., was "the first in the market to do a servo motion controller," according to Nathan Turner, vice president of sales and marketing. Animatics' products reached the marketplace in 1995. Turner says that Animatics has seen a significant growth in their market in "especially multi-axis" applications in the past year.



Comments: Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]





<< Home

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?

Subscribe to Posts [Atom]