Motors & Drives Topics Page

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Recent Articles

How to get decades of service from your electric motors

Inspect and maintain motors from the moment you invest in them.

Are you taking the right steps to keep your motors humming?

Proper lubrication, testing, cooling, and contamination mitigation extend uptime.

Is your storeroom stocked with the right spare parts?

Motor spares in inventory can experience a generation gap.

Proposed NEMA standards updates could save your bearings

Bearing protection is needed if inverter-duty motors are to live up to their name.

More Articles »

White Papers: In Depth Research

Reducing servomotor instability
Author: Marcus Schick
Posted: 11/21/2011
Instability in a motor is uncontrolled and unintended motion at the motor shaft and can occur at any frequency. It's caused by excessive gain in the speed controller of the drive, and the gain setting of the speed controller determines how much torque the drive will generate. As servo drives become more prevalent in industry, they are being applied in a wider range of applications. Servo motors sometimes make a "growling" noise, which can be eliminated by reducing the gain on the speed controller, but lower speed controller gains can lead to an increase in position error and a decrease in performance. This paper looks at the methods that can be used to eliminate servo instability.

Advances in low-voltage motor control center (MCC) technology help reduce arc flash hazards and minimize risks
Posted: 05/09/2011
Measures to increase equipment and personnel safety in manufacturing are reflected in new approaches and technologies designed to help minimize the risk of workplace dangers. One rapidly growing area of focus is reducing the potentially serious hazards associated with arc flash events. This white paper examines the causes of arc flash, discusses the standards guiding arc flash safety and details the role arc-resistant motor control centers (MCCs) play in helping contain arc energy. It also highlights the key features of an effective arc-resistant MCC design.

Intelligent motor control centers lay the foundation for improvements in manufacturing efficiency and reliability
Posted: 12/08/2010
Measures to increase equipment and personnel safety in manufacturing are reflected in new approaches and technologies designed to help minimize the risk of workplace dangers. One rapidly growing area of focus is reducing the potentially serious hazards associated with arc-flash events. This white paper examines the causes of arc flash, discusses the standards guiding arc-flash safety and details the role arc-resistant motor control centers (MCCs) play in helping contain arc energy. It also highlights the key features of an effective arc-resistant MCC design.

Managing safety hazards and reducing risks are top priorities for manufacturers across all sectors of industry. With a multitude of potential dangers and new ones continuously emerging, companies must be diligent in their ongoing efforts while considering new approaches and technologies to improve plant safety. One rapidly growing area of focus is implementing techniques and practices designed to reduce hazards and minimize risk for workers who must enter an area with an electrical arc-flash potential.

The case for hollow shaft torque motors
Posted: 10/04/2010
Permanent magnet synchronous torque motors offer significant advantages on high energy consuming and high dynamic applications.

Today's machine designer must evaluate more factors than ever in approaching a new project. Likewise, the integrator and retrofit engineer has expanded options, not only as a result of new technologies, but also because of critical areas of focus such as reduced energy consumption, faster assembly time, vendor reduction and smaller footprint achievement.

In the realm of motion control, one type of motor with a relatively short history has made significant advancements that necessitate a new look at its potential in many application areas. These applications range from machine tool rotary tables to various packaging, printing, converting, extruding, papermaking, plastic film and materials handling machinery, anywhere direction must be reversed with a very high degree of accuracy, no backlash (hysteresis) and the maintaining of motion control, contrasting the necessary decoupling of a conventional motor and gearbox.

Enter the often-overlooked permanent magnet, synchronous torque motor. Torque motors are direct drives built for rotary axes where high torque and high precision are required at relatively low speeds. With significantly lower installation time, maintenance requirements, component part count and space allowance, these motor types are frequently viable alternatives to geared motors.

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