Recently, National Instruments (NI) announced a new collaboration with Kollmorgen. The collaboration expands NI’s motion control offerings by adding access to Kollmorgen’s high-quality servo and drive systems which can be programmed with NI’s LabVIEW SoftMotion Module. 

According to National Instruments, engineers will be able to put together motion control systems more easily and will have access to the full suite of NI’s motion control portfolio including the company’s test and measurement offerings.

For instance, Kollmorgen’s EtherCAT AKD brushless servo drive is integrated directly with NI SoftMotion, eliminating the process of EtherCAT programming. In addition, these servo systems are synchronized with any other modules in an NI PXI or NI CompactRIO system. NI also sells the new single-cable AKM motor globally, which combines motor power and feedback signals in one connector, reducing wiring cost and complexity.

This is part of an ongoing trend where more motion control companies are offering complete solutions to their customers and moving away from selling only components. In some cases it may involve companies merging or selling off product lines, or as in this case, collaborating to offer engineers easier ways to design motion control systems.