What's going on with motor drives right now? Dan Jones, a motion control consultant and board member of the Motion Control Assn., can answer that question in a word. Or make that seven words. “Faster, smaller, simpler, cheaper, smarter, smoother, better,” is how he puts it. “There's a lot of pressure in the drives' market to provide more added value,” says Jones, who is also president of Incremotion Assoc. Makers of all different kinds of drives are taking a variety of approaches to adding that value. More makers are integrating drives with motors and encoders. Others are coming out with lower-cost servo drive solutions. Still others are pushing the envelope with regard to size. Here's a look at three such examples.
Elmo's Integrated Solution
Elmo Motion Inc. has integrated drives and feedback devices into its new Duet Series of brushless dc servo motors. This integration of all three components into one housing saves space and shortens cable runs, but it also eases the configuration of servo systems. As Elmo Manager John McLaughlin explains, the integration also involved the incorporation of Elmo's SimplIQ, a fully digital motion controller that supports resolver feedback, programming capabilities and communications via CANOpen or RS-232. The Duet comes in six different models covering a power range from 0.16 to 2.5 Nm within a voltage range of 10 to 196V dc.
Maxon Simplifies Small Amplifier
Maxon has introduced a 1-quadrant amplifier for miniature brushless dc motors. “This amplifier fills a gap in the offerings under 100 Watts,” says Kirk Barker, Maxon's electronics product manager. Called DEC 24/3, the open-board solution supports input voltages from 5 to 24V and a maximum continuous output power of 3A — or up to 6A intermittently. With its DSP-based controls, the DEC 24/3 can operate as a digital speed controller and open-loop controller with the operating mode selectable with a DIP switch. Speed values can be set via the unit's integrated potentiometer or from an external reference value. DEC 24/3 models are available to connect directly to Maxon's EC and EC flat motors.
Quicksilver Lowers Servo Cost
QuickSilver Controls has come out with a $570 drive and controller for its line of NEMA 11, 17 and 23 high-torque, direct-drive servomotors — which are essentially stepper motors transformed into servos through QuickSilver's proprietary control technologies. The drive, called the SilverDust IGF, features a DIN-rail mountable design, 7 TTL level I/O with an option for 24V, RS 232/485 serial interface and ASCII/Modbus protocol. The SilverDust IGF also has its share of built-in smarts. According to Quicksilver President Don Labriola, this drive has enough memory for several thousand lines of programming, which allows it to support sophisticated control tasks such as trajectory control.
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