Modern industrial machines rely on fast, accurate motion control in order to achieve high product quality and productivity, as measurement errors can lead to increased scrap and production downtime. However, these and other costly headaches can be avoided by choosing the proper...

Increasingly competitive markets make efficient and accurate processes more critical than ever before. To meet the demands of manufacturers, machine builders are constantly searching for new methods to design faster, more precise, and longer-lasting systems that...

In 1938, General Electric began producing a two-phase synchronous induction motor which, at 60 Hz, ran at 75 RPM. The low speed resulted from using a different number of rotors to stator poles or teeth, which made the motor a good bi-directional control motor. This motor was used by Superior Electric Company of...

The economic realities of the industrial marketplace are driving machine builders and integrators to get creative and build more intelligence into their machines in order to increase productivity and lower lifecycle cost. This is done by minimizing time to communicate with the motion controller,...

HARTING North America was recently asked to solve some of the problems associated with power distribution and motion control on a vehicle manufacturer’s long conveyor and engine block production line. The line’s system integrator needed to reduce installation costs to be...

A custom gearmotor is one that meets your particular specifications. It has the correct mechanical and electrical interfaces, fits within the envelope available, meets your performance, maintenance, lifetime, and aftermarket criteria, and fits within your budget.

A new category of IC called an intelligent motor controller (IMC) is evolving that simplifies the task of designing high performance motor control drives. IMCs are dedicated, highspeed ICs that control multi-phase motors such as brushless DC and AC induction motors, and provide sophisticated...

Machine designers and end users find themselves balancing sometimes opposing priorities such as improving energy efficiency while minimizing adverse impact on the environment, at the same time ensuring performance (e.g., precision, reliability) is not compromised. A key trend...

Diabetic retinopathy resulting from long-term diabetes mellitus is one of the common diseases that leads to choroidal neovascularization (CNV), a leading cause of blindness. Among the currently available treatment methods, a laser can be used to photocoagulate the diseased areas....

Students trained in classic mechanical engineering are taught to construct a system using conventional mechanical components to convert rotary into linear motion. Converting rotary to linear motion can be accomplished by several mechanical means using a rotary motor, rack and pinion, belt and pulley, and other...

Today’s pumps, valves, and flow meters are being designed with greater accuracy and flexibility to handle a wide range of fluids, chemicals, and other materials. Demands for more reliable operation and lower energy usage dictate these parts be made of materials lighter than previously...

Next-generation flywheels are made possible by advances in material science in rotor technology, as well as the application of magnetic bearings running in a vacuum environment. While the movement of the rotating flywheel into a vacuum eliminates parasitic drags, such as windage friction...

Whether performing an intricate surgery, positioning a patient, or taking a tissue sample, today’s biomedical devices are taking advantage of advanced motion control devices to ensure accurate control and movement in biomedical applications. Robots are making it possible to perform surgical...

Slip clutches are commonly used to protect against overloads, but they can solve many other problems as well. Their applications include increasing machine speeds, applying constant tension to webs or wires, indexing a mechanism, holding a hinged object in position, controlling torque on capping or...

There’s a science to testing metal structures for rigidity and performance under stress. The development of new testing methodologies is continuing at a fast pace, aided by innovations in supporting technologies. For example, motion controllers have evolved to support special...

For process industries, one of the greatest challenges plant operators face is finding a sensor technology that will provide reliable measurement of liquid levels in tanks while requiring minimal attention and maintenance.

Single-turn encoders have long been used in industrial automation to gauge angular displacement in a broad range of applications, ranging from steering control on a mobile equipment vehicle to boom extensions. A single-turn encoder is a transducer that precisely measures angular...

Functional machine safety using discrete wiring is an established way to protect workers from injury, and protect companies from the expense associated with accidents and downtime.

Just a few years ago, the use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in most aerospace companies was restricted to pure research or troubleshooting problems with existing designs. But in the past few years, newly available CFD tools are fully embedded in the mainstream mechanical design environment...

When it comes to choosing a flowmetering device, some users assume “one size fits all.” In reality, there are significant differences between flowmeter types, and each design has its unique “pros and cons.” The basis of proper meter selection is a general awareness of flow measurement science — and a clear...

For over a hundred years, machine parts composed of mechanical carbon have provided an alternative solution in applications where temperature and atmosphere conditions prevent the use of oil-grease lubricants. Mechanical carbon materials containing graphite are relied on for their...

Reactive, avoidable equipment repairs are a leading contributor to lost productivity in industrial manufacturing operations. Parts with an average selling price of just a few dollars can cost manufacturers many times that in repairs and unrealized revenue once they fail. In a...

Advances in digital hardware technology and software innovations now allow a single digital servo drive to be configured to work in a variety of machine control architectures.

What do you do if you’re in the business of producing a wide variety of metal presses to meet special customer requirements? You choose your system components wisely, and flexibility of function plays a large part.

Maxon’s MCD EPOS integrated power drive was used by a wine and liquor bottling operation to control the cutting of shrink-wrapped film over the bottleneck and cork or cap.

Solving a machine vision application, whether it involves quality inspection, part verification or any number of additional tasks, requires taking several factors into consideration. The most important part of this process is analyzing the target object and its inspection...

Machine vision systems are playing an increasingly important role in many industrial applications, whether it is counting parts on an assembly line or examining surfaces for defects. Improvements in computing power, optics, connectivity, and software are allowing vision systems to be deployed...

Recent advances in motion control and machine vision technologies present tremendous opportunities for Automated Optical Inspection (AOI) systems. Thanks to recent developments in these fundamental building block technologies, today’s AOI systems can carry out inspections with a higher resolution and...

Robotics technology has made measurable strides in the last few years. Today’s robots can move with greater precision over a more flexible range of motion, while handling heavier payloads. Advances in vision systems and software are giving robots the ability to recognize and handle a wider range of...

Many robotic and mechanical systems require the calculation of kinematic equations to express the relationship between variables that are to be controlled (motor/actuator position obtained via feedback sensors and manipulated by motors/actuators) and variables that are to be commanded, such as the...