The 2013 edition of the Motion Control Handbook is the third edition of Design World’s annual motion control compendium. Since the first edition in 2011, we’ve revised sections including either adding new information or (as sometimes was the case) condensing a lot of information down into the really essential material. (You can view the digital edition of the Motion Control Handbook here.)

Overall, what you’ll find within is the same commitment to the basics of motion control as well as tips for selecting motion control components.

In addition, we also take a look at some of the most prominent trends in the motion control industry. Design World senior editor Mary Gannon spoke with some of the leading people and companies in motion control about the trends they see in the industry.

Not surprisingly, we find many trends ongoing from years past, such as the focus on energy efficiency as well as the ongoing push towards increased integration. Energy efficiency is important for a few reasons, one being new government mandates for energy efficient products. This is also impacting the industrial space. The other trend is a focus on cost reduction. Having a smart energy management system in place is a straightforward way to use energy more smartly. This impacts the company bottom line but also contributes to using less energy in general and being more environmentally friendly as well.

Along the same lines as the ever-present concern with cost reduction is the interest in so-called single cable solutions. Not only can this reduce costs, but it also can potentially simplify connections among elements in a control system or machine.

Another interesting trend to keep an eye on is the rise in mobile applications; and by mobile here I mean primarily robotics. With more robots being installed in industrial and manufacturing settings, not to mention in warehouses and material handling applications, the market potential in this area is set to take off. And in robotics we see the perfect convergence of nearly all motion control related components and systems; motors, encoders, gears, cabling, actuators, controllers, sensors and software and programming know-how.

As always, each year we strive to make this handbook more useful and beneficial to you, our readers. We hope you’ll agree that this is an excellent resource for you in your daily work.

Let us know how we’re doing. We can keep the conversation going here at motioncontroltips.com or at linearmotiontips.com.