IT’S surprising the motors and drives you can get off-the-shelf these days.
Customised products previously developed for one-off applications have become part of the standard range of many companies.
M Rutty in Australia offers many of these innovative new products, as the distributor of Maxon motors.
Speaking with FEN magazine, the company’s general manager, Bretty Motum gave pancake motors as an example.
“Pancake motors were derived out of applications where customers had a specific envelope to fit the motor in. Now these flat style motors are a common item in our catalogue,” he said.
Ceramic and metal injection moulding form another example. In past applications where tooling was not available to machine products, moulding became the alternative.
Now, moulding is a service many motor companies offer their customers on a regular basis.
Motum’s prediction is that this method will increasingly feature in standard motor ranges.
“As metal injection moulding and ceramic injection moulding become more and more readily available, ceramic shafts, ceramic commutation segments and ceramic roller bearings will all make automation products smaller and more powerful,” he said.
Not only are motors changing shape and substance, increasingly, they come integrated with features that were added extras in the past. Maxon for instance, has developed the MCD, a motor encoder, servo amplifier and position control unit all in a single body.
A plug and play solution, MCD gives the customer a two-wire connection for a full speed torque and position controllable drive.
The trend toward integration is also seen in linear motion actuators.
Customers have long been required to fit thrust bearings to actuators, effectively building their own equipment. This year however, Maxon has released a gearhead range featuring integrated thrust bearings so that the customer merely needs to couple their load to the actuator.
This technology is not unique to Maxon, with a number of companies supplying motorised linear actuators as standard.
Maxon’s point of difference, however, is in the modularity of its system, which allows the user to select thread pitch, thrust force, gearhead ratio, motor winding and voltage and encoder feedback. Once the customer has specified his choices, Maxon fits the system together.
What are the reasons for this trend toward more complex off-the-shelf products? Motum suggested three main causes.
“Firstly, there is the need to get more and more equipment into smaller spaces. That’s led to an integration of motor control devices into the actual motor body,” he said.
“Secondly, there is the expertise of the motor company in manufacturing motors. They’re able to make products smaller and more efficient than the customer can. They’re able to break the circuit boards down into smaller footprints and fit them more closely together than an end-user would be able to.”
The biggest reason however, is labour, according to Motum.
“Labour costs in this country are high and people need as much manufactured into their product as they can. The more a single supplier can do towards building an end product, the less the customer has to do, and the cheaper it is for their own operations.”
In light of these arguments, Motum believes there is a high risk companies will waste money by trying to develop their own customised motors and drives solution.
He advised manufactures: “Get advice from a specialist early before purchasing any of the load peripherals because they may be able to reduce the number of components you think are required based on traditional manufacturing methods."
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