The fast-food industry is all about tasty food at low prices with cheerful customer service — all delivered fast. But with labor shortages and supply chain issues still plaguing the economy, how can businesses compete and survive? Fast-food restaurants across the globe are pondering ways to automate certain tasks or entire assembly lines to provide continuous service […]
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Gearmotors driving the timber industry
Rugged innovative gears and gearmotors along with other drive technologies rise to the challenge in demanding wood-processing applications. By Oscar Lopez • Service manager — industrial gearing | SEW Eurodrive Applications in the timber industry are varied and demanding — consisting of debarking, sawing, drilling, milling, and grinding operations. The machines used in these processes […]
Encoder, sensor, and feedback trends
Recently, a number of encoder, sensor, and feedback industry experts answered several questions about trends they are seeing with these components and the industry more generally. Here’s what they had to say. MEET THE EXPERTS Bill Paczkowski | Senior product manager for PACEdge • Emerson Robert Cachro | Program manager – growth and innovation • […]
Wiegand energy harvester enables new IoT technologies
UBITO, a member of the FRABA family of technology companies, has announced a development of Wiegand technology as an energy source for smart sensors. After more than two years of effort at FRABA’s R&D center in Aachen (Germany), a research team has demonstrated a prototype of a wireless sensor powered by Wiegand technology that could […]
Physik Instrumente acquires IBS Ingenieurbüro
At the start of 2023, Physik Instrumente (PI) GmbH & Co. KG merged 53 engineers, software experts, and other specialists from the insolvent IBS Ingenieurbüro Dr. Klaus Schnürer GmbH to establish a new subsidiary within the PI Group. “PI’s engineering capacity will immediately increase by approx. 55,000 hours per year,” estimates Markus Spanner, CEO of […]
Most-read motion-control articles of 2022
As we close out the year of 2022, the staff of Motion Control Tips would like to present our most-read articles of this year. (5th) most read: Electric actuators — an alternative to hydraulic cylinders This article details how as electric rod-style actuators have become capable of outputting forces comparable to those of high-end hydraulics, […]
New single-axis motion controller from Galil
The DMC-3x01x Motion Controller Series is Galil’s latest generation single-axis motion controller. It uses a 32-bit RISC processor to provide higher speed than older models. Like all Galil controllers, programming the DMC-3x01x is simplified with two-letter, intuitive commands and a full set of software tools for servo tuning and analysis. The DMC-3x01x Motion Controller Series feature: Available as a compact card-level or box-level unit […]
What determines worm gear efficiency, and is it really that low?
Worm gears are often used for their ability to provide very high reduction ratios (and high torque multiplication) in a compact, single-stage design. But traditional thinking says that these benefits come at the expense of efficiency. Here, we’ll look at the factors that determine worm gear efficiency and how to get the benefits they provide […]
Where brushless servo motors have the edge
While there are many motor types to choose from, brushless servo motors have some advantages that make them the motor of choice in many applications. Bob Merrill Product Manager Servo motors ABB There are many motor types out there for engineers to choose from, and which is the best selection depends on each individual application. […]
Sizing a dynamic brake resistor
Dynamic brakes in electric motor drives divert rising DC bus voltage seen during load deceleration. Here we explain how to size the resistors that process that voltage. By Lawrence Kren | Contributing writer Dynamic brakes divert rising DC bus voltage to an appropriately sized resistor where that voltage is then dissipated as heat. This process […]
