Moog Animatics, a division of Moog Inc., has released a firmware upgrade to their Class 5 SmartMotor (fully integrated servo motor) product line featuring innovative capabilities to simplify spooling and winding applications.

Spooling is the most effective way to conveniently package materials of exceptionally long length such as thread, film, wire and thermoplastics. Typically, the spooling material is fed at a certain rate while a guide traverses the material back and forth corresponding to a desired pattern. The position accuracy of a traversing guide is best maintained when it is linked to the rotational velocity of the winding spool. The SmartMotor’s new firmware offers commands dedicated to solving the pain of programming a motion control system for complicated winding patterns.

Previous industry solutions required dynamically changing the electronic gear ratio of the traversing motor or offsetting its traverse speed on the fly. However by utilizing a sensor to feed back material width information to the SmartMotor, the effective gear ratio can be dynamically compensated within the SmartMotor to ensure there are no gaps in the material wound onto the spool and without compromising traverse endpoint locations.

Moog Animatics
www.animatics.com