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FAQs + basics

What are geared cam limit switches?

October 28, 2020 By Danielle Collins Leave a Comment

geared cam limit switches

Electromechanical switches are often placed at the ends of linear axes to indicate the limits of travel. But for applications with rotary — rather than linear — motion, geared cam limit switches can perform a similar function by tracking rotations of the motor shaft and triggering switches to stop movement when the specified number of […]

Filed Under: Encoders, FAQs + basics, Featured, Sensors + Vision

What are thermal overload relays and what motion components do they protect?

October 21, 2020 By Danielle Collins Leave a Comment

Heat is a major factor in the performance and life of a motor, and one of the primary sources of motor heating is current running through the motor windings. Since heating is an unavoidable condition of motor operation, it’s important to protect the motor from overheating, or thermal overload. In a previous post, we described […]

Filed Under: AC Motors, FAQs + basics, Featured, Sensors + Vision

What are HMI-PLC combination units and where do they make sense?

October 16, 2020 By Miles Budimir Leave a Comment

HMI PLC

PLCs have long been an industry standard in machine control. They range in size and function from the simplest of controllers with the most basic ladder logic instruction set to multi-function complex units that can provide multiple control modes from basic control functions to process control and even motion control functions. (Programmable automation controllers, or […]

Filed Under: Controls, FAQs + basics

What’s the difference between dynamic braking and regenerative braking?

October 15, 2020 By Danielle Collins Leave a Comment

regenerative braking

When a motor’s rotor speed is greater than its synchronous, or designated, speed, it can act as a generator, creating electrical energy from mechanical energy. This electrical energy needs somewhere to go, and there are two ways to deal with it — dissipate it as heat, or reuse it. Dynamic braking takes the energy generated […]

Filed Under: AC Motors, Drives + Supplies, FAQs + basics, Featured, Uncategorized

What are busbars and how are they used in motion control applications?

October 14, 2020 By Danielle Collins Leave a Comment

busbars

Busbars are components that facilitate the distribution of power to electrical equipment, supplementing or replacing traditional wiring in applications such as commercial facilities, data centers, and industrial plants. At their most basic, busbars are relatively simple bars, strips, or rods made of copper, brass, or aluminum, but in many cases, they’re constructed in specific shapes […]

Filed Under: Drives + Supplies, FAQs + basics, Featured, Industrial Automation

What are bearing currents and what causes them?

October 8, 2020 By Danielle Collins Leave a Comment

bearing currents

Pulse-width modulation is a fundamental operating principle of variable frequency drives (VFDs), but the high-frequency switching that delivers pulses of voltage from the drive to the motor can cause bearing currents — high-frequency currents that flow through the motor bearings, often leading to damage and premature failure. To achieve pulse-width modulation, insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) […]

Filed Under: AC Motors, Drives + Supplies, FAQs + basics, Featured, Uncategorized

What is cable ringing between AC drives and motors and how can it be avoided?

September 25, 2020 By Danielle Collins Leave a Comment

cable ringing

Variable frequency drives use a technique referred to as pulse-width modulation (PWM) to provide voltage of varying frequency to an AC induction motor. The inverter, or output, stage of the VFD uses insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) that switch on-and-off rapidly, creating trapezoidal pulses of varying width to simulate AC sinusoidal voltage. But the windings in […]

Filed Under: AC Motors, Drives + Supplies, FAQs + basics, Featured

How do vibration sensors measure acceleration to track machine health?

September 18, 2020 By Miles Budimir Leave a Comment

sensors

Condition monitoring of machines is intimately linked with the larger program of predictive maintenance. The goal of predictive maintenance is to reduce or eliminate entirely sudden and catastrophic machine failure by actively monitoring those components that are critical to machine function. By monitoring components such as motors, fans, pumps and other constituent components such as […]

Filed Under: FAQs + basics, Sensors + Vision

What’s the difference between resistance, reactance, and impedance?

September 15, 2020 By Danielle Collins Leave a Comment

resistance reactance impedance

DC circuits are relatively easy to analyze, due to current flowing in one direction, with resistance being the main element of the circuit. AC circuits, on the other hand, are more complex, since voltage and current alternate direction with a given frequency. Whereas DC circuits have resistance, AC circuits often have resistance and another property, known […]

Filed Under: FAQs + basics, Featured

What are drive isolation transformers and how do they differ from line reactors?

September 15, 2020 By Danielle Collins Leave a Comment

drive isolation transformers

A variable frequency drive alters the speed of an AC induction motor by rectifying incoming AC power to DC, storing the DC power in a bus, and then converting the DC power back to AC at the voltage and frequency required to meet the load demands. Although this matching of the motor speed to the […]

Filed Under: AC Motors, Drives + Supplies, FAQs + basics, Featured

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