Servo
drives are moving into more outdoor, mobile and rugged industrial environments
by extending their ability to withstand a wider range of temperature extremes,
shock and vibration. OEM machinery builders have typically found it challenging
and developed custom drive designs to implement motion electronics exposed to these
types of harsh conditions.
ADVANCED Motion Controls
(AMC), a servo drive
supplier that specializes in embedded OEM drive products, is consolidating its
experience with custom designs for extreme environments into a new
family of standard servo drives targeting these applications.
"The
uniqueness of the AZX product line centers on its use of ultra high temperature
bus capacitors and operating in a range where standard electrolytics would dry
out," says Shane Beilke, a product manager for AMC. "We have set a new benchmark in terms of
temperature range with a standard servo drive product that operates from -40 to
85C."
Given
standard operating ambient operating temperatures for drives of 0 to 45C, this
new capability extends the temperature range nearly 200 percent for a total of
an additional 80C, with 40C on both the low and high ends.
Beilke
says the drives have been designed to offer a higher current ratings and more
robust operation. Heat sink temperature shutdown is set at 115C (239F) and the
drives provide full temperature range cycling in just under 2 min. The units
are designed to withstand shock up to 15g's at 11 msec (½ sine) and vibration
up to 30 Grms on all three axes.
The
AZX analog drives are packaged using a space-saving PCB-mount architecture, and
are lightweight at only 95 gm (3.35 oz). Use of high density power devices and
dual sided PCB boards make the modules ideal for applications with limited size
and weight constraints.
The
drives can power three phase (brushless) and single phase (brushed) motors. AZX
drives are powered off a single unregulated dc power supply, and provide a
variety of control and feedback options. The units accept either a ±10V analog
signal or a PWM and direction signal as input. A digital controller can be used
to command and interact with the drives, and a number of input/output pins are
available for parameter observation and drive configuration.
The
types of applications that the AZX drives are targeting include altitude
research platforms, airborne vehicles, ground-based fixed platforms, marine
surface vessels, submarines and remote tethered equipment.
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