Hypoid gearboxes are a type of spiral bevel gearbox, with the difference that hypoid gears have axes that are non-intersecting and not parallel. In other words, the axes of hypoid gears are offset from one another. The basic geometry of the hypoid gear is hyperbolic, rather than having the conical geometry of a spiral bevel […]
Featured
Four lessons learned from igus CEO Frank Blase
On a recent press tour of igus’ Cologne, Germany headquarters, I had the pleasure of chatting with Frank Blase, the company’s CEO—and one of the most approachable and down-to-earth manufacturing leaders you are apt to find. Blase shared some of what has helped him grow his father’s small German company—over several decades—into the global manufacturer […]
Pallet conveyors for assembly — enabling flexible automation with versatility
By Kate Nadeau, engineer with mk North America Automation and robotics are the here and now (and future) of America’s manufacturing sector, which means the time is also right for advanced conveyors. These conveyors are lean and durable as well as dependable, fast, intelligent, and adaptable. Unlike yesteryear’s conveyors, today’s advanced conveyor systems (which will enable […]
Lenze 70th anniversary automation news: Digital, mechatronic, and systems approaches
At its 70th anniversary event in Germany last week, Lenze Gruppe (parent of Lenze Americas in the U.S.) revealed several new initiatives and products. The main themes at the event were mechatronics offerings; systems solutions; and digital approaches to operations. For mechatronics initiatives, some new offerings include new m850 servo gearmotors and drives to blur […]
How to design quiet gearmotors: Gear engagement, housing geometry, and more
What applications need quiet gearmotors? The answer might surprise you — because the human ear can detect noise at 10 dB lower than ambient levels, and many gearmotors operate in close proximity to people. In this technical article, we outline recent staff engineers’ research and development into the problem (and potential solutions for) gearmotor noise. […]
New organization promotes no-charge, open-source interface technology for industrial control systems
POSITAL FRABA has announced that it is participating as a founding member of the BiSS Association e.V., a new organization dedicated to encouraging the use of the BiSS family of open-source industrial communications protocols. BiSS communications protocols were developed by the German company iC-Haus GmbH as an efficient and feature-rich digital interface for communications between […]
How to address overshoot in servo control
Updated August 2018 || There are three characteristics that indicate when a servo system is properly tuned: response time, settling time, and overshoot. Response time is the time it takes the system to reach a specified percentage of the target value, while settling time is the time it takes for the target value to be […]
Which piezo motor types experience wear?
Piezo elements are used in a variety of configurations to provide rotary or linear motion in applications that require short strokes and fast response times. Piezo elements that are used to produce motion through the inverse piezoelectric effect are known as piezo actuators. These devices provide very small displacements with extremely high resolution. When one […]
AutomationDirect adds more Koyo incremental and absolute encoders
AutomationDirect has expanded its Koyo encoder product line to include additional incremental encoder output options and higher resolutions for absolute encoders. The TRD-S Series of 6-mm solid shaft and TRD-SH Series of 8-mm hollow shaft incremental encoders now have 5-12 Vdc open collector output versions in addition to the existing 12-24 Vdc open collector or […]
Lin Engineering hybrid stepper motors now in NEMA-6 frame sizes
Lin Engineering now sells 106 Series hybrid stepper motors with a step angle of 3.46° and 104 steps per revolution. The compact motors are just 16 mm wide but deliver to 1.85 oz-in. holding torque. That equates to quadruple the holding torque of can-stack PM steppers … and in fact, the 106 Series hybrid stepper […]