Brushless DC motor with integrated controller

Unique 5 wire Brushless DC motor with integrated BLDC controller provides a new and more conveniently packaged solution.

New from maxon motor is a brushless DC motor that takes a turn away from the Swiss motor company’s traditional designs. The EC-I 30IE motor features a five wire connection to simplify implementation and still give a wide functionality. An independent set speed value connection allows for a greater motor operating speed range over the common two wire approach to integrated brushless motor control. Additional features are a disable, direction and speed monitor output. It is an enclosed design that does not require any airflow through the body for cooling which makes it suitable for harsh environments typical of various industries such as food, packaging, manufacturing, mining & deep sea drilling and aerospace. Despite the internal motor control board the motor has still been designed with a shaft on both ends of the body for orientation convenience and is still part of the modular construction program allowing the addition of ceramic planetary gearheads (reduction gearboxes). The motor is 30mm diameter and 41mm long including the control unit. It has four quadrant control meaning it can control dynamic acceleration and deceleration in both directions. The controlled top speed is 6000rpm from a 24V supply and the 20W power rating indicates a high power density ratio.

For more information contact maxon motor Australia tel. +61 2 9457 7477.

Micro DC motor perfectly adapted

This very small DC micromotor has morphed into a perfect application solution. It is in fact, a brushed DC motor, planetary gearhead and magnetic encoder customised to suit the application.

Being only 10mm diameter it requires close inspection to notice the unique changes that have been made to the motor solution. Through extensive and vigorous testing the design engineers for the end application have individually examined and “tweaked” almost every feature. The first prototypes delivered used a standard maxon RE10 motor and GP10 planetary gearhead. It was found that the extremely space constrained location where the motor is mounted required the assembly technicians to tightly bend the cables where they exited the digital encoder. This caused strain on the solder terminations of the encoder PCB. maxon quickly implemented the customers following request for a resin to be applied at the cable exit to assist with strain relief. This assisted to an extent by making the motor design more robust however it was what is commonly referred to as a “band-aid solution”. Further testing revealed the true cause of the cable strain came about because of an unspecified cable exit angle with relation to the customer fitted custom front flange for the motor. Also further exacerbated by the screw on mounting assembly between the motor and gearhead that allowed for various angle of orientation that were torque dependent. This in a small number of occasions caused the cable to interfere with other components in the machine. A solution offered by maxon motor Australia was that at the point of motor fabrication, the front motor mounting flange and customer drive element be laser welded in place. This is difficult enough to achieve given the motors micro dimensions but additional drastic changes had to be made to facilitate the customisation. This being a completely redesigned gearbox with a stainless steel construction to enable welding of the flange to the motor body. A special jig was constructed to hold the motor and encoder cable exit in specific orientation with the front flange whilst welding takes place to ensure consistent part relationship. Thus, over time maxon motor have morphed a standard catalogue motor and gearhead into a perfectly suited custom solution.

Contact maxon motor Australia at their Sydney office on Ph: +61 2 9457 7477.

New functionality from maxon’s EPOS4 Compact DC motor positioning controller

Unlocking new opportunities for a range of applications, Maxon’s EPOS4 Compact series motor controller can now be incorporated into EtherCAT networks.

Maxons compact controllers now speak another language: the new EtherCAT models comply with the CoE standard (CAN application layer over EtherCAT) and can be easily integrated into existing EtherCAT networks.

The new, intelligent motion controllers with realtime communication offer a simple, plug-and-play solution for controlling brushed DC and brushless EC motors with peak currents of up to 30A. With their modular design, they are particularly suited to applications with single or multi-axis systems in small devices and machines as well as robotics.

Also available is an extensive range of accessories to make the connection and integration process as seamless and easy to use as possible. Besides the intuitive “EPOS Studio” software, Windows DLL and Linux Shared Objects Libraries are also freely available for incorporating the controllers into a variety of master systems. As well, a detailed range of product documents are readily available.

The versatile EtherCAT controllers are available immediately in two power versions: 50V/8A and 50V/15A. Other variants in the Compact series (EPOS4 Compact 24/1.5 EtherCAT & EPOS4 Compact 50/5 EtherCAT) will be available by the end of 2018.

For more information about maxon‘s EPOS controllers visit epos.maxonmotor.com or contact maxon motor Australia tel. +61 2 9457 7477.