Motion Control Tips

Automation • Motion Control • Power Transmission

  • News
    • Industry News
    • Editor Blogs
  • Controls
    • HMIs
    • PC-Based Controllers
    • PLCs + PACs
    • Stand-Alone Controllers
    • Software
  • Drives
    • Servo Drives
    • Stepper Drives
  • Encoders
    • Absolute Encoders
    • Incremental Encoders
    • Rotary Encoders
  • Mechanical
    • Bearings
    • Brakes + Clutches
    • Belt + chain
    • Couplings
    • Gears + Gearing
    • Lubrication
    • Shock + Vibration Mitigation
    • Springs + Rings + Seals
  • Linear
    • Actuators
    • Linear Motors
    • Linear Encoders
  • Motors
    • AC Motors
    • DC Motors
    • Brushless Motors
    • Gearmotors
    • Piezo Motors
    • Servo Motors
    • Stepper Motors
  • Systems
    • Conveyors
    • Gantries + Stages
    • Rotary Tables
    • Grippers + End Effectors
    • Robotics
  • Networks
    • Connections + Sliprings
    • Fieldbuses
    • I/O
    • Sensors + Vision
  • FAQs
    • Motion Casebook
    • Motion Selection Guides
  • Suppliers
You are here: Home / Industry News / Motion Trends: Customized solutions drive gearmotor development

Motion Trends: Customized solutions drive gearmotor development

March 27, 2018 by Miles Budimir Leave a Comment

The driving force in gearmotor design and development in large part is the desire for customized solutions, which consists in large part of simplifying integration into mechanical designs.

These trends are driving gearmotor manufacturers to offer their customers more simplicity. Along these lines, suppliers are offering their customers more in-house engineering resources to help them with their designs, which translates into more custom solutions.

Also as new applications arise, they call for design changes, such as in newer battery-powered designs. Case in point; engineers at Bodine Electric have been developing and testing gearmotors with optimized windings and motors for efficient operation at low voltages in outdoor and battery powered systems. Design enhancements include new winding configurations optimized for low resistance, and new magnetic configurations to optimize performance with the lower voltages available in battery powered designs.

gearmotor

This 3D-CAD model of Bodine Electric’s new PMDC planetary gearmotor shows the two stages of planetary gearing along with the O-rings on all the mating surfaces giving it an IP-66 rating.

Battery powered gearmotors and motors for mobile equipment and AGV applications are usually required to be as small and as efficient as possible. Designers of these mobile robots aim for the smallest possible motor footprint. Integrating sensors and actuator mechanisms with the gearmotor is a practical way of improving the use of available space.

The trend toward more custom designs also continues to impact gearmotor designs. “Many of our customers require custom electrical designs and mechanical features,” notes Mark Marhoefer, Director of Technical Research and Controls for Bodine Electric. “Typical customization of our gearmotors ranges from minor details like special tapped holes in the housings to custom magnetics, special castings, shafts, sensors, customized controllers and motor and control testing. We also conduct ongoing outdoors and environmental testing of these products to further validate out IP ratings.”

Others examples include adding custom castings to a gearmotor assembly that allowed an OEM to integrate their drive wheel mechanisms with the gearmotor, making the assembly and installation of the drive unit much easier and more compact. Bodine regularly incorporates custom feedback solutions within the motor design to allow the customer to easily interface the gearmotor with their electronics. These solutions include many types of temperature sensors, various shaft feedback devices for speed and position sensing and custom feedback designs for actuator arms with limited range of motion. Especially with the rising interest in the industrial IoT, companies are seeing an increasing the demand for sensor technologies at the motor. This typically includes increased demand for motor temperature sensors and sensors for velocity or position feedback.

gearmotor

Some examples of custom designed motors from Bodine Electric with integrated gearheads, wheel drive mechanisms and integrated sensors for automated warehousing applications.

Customization also includes more integration up front. For instance, motors with actuators designed for defined purposes such as lift actuators, rotating actuators and wheel drives. Also, gearmotors with integrated controllers allow the envelope to be more compact and eliminates the wiring typically required between the controller and the motor.

“Instead of selling a motor and letting the customer do the integration of actuator components for the application, we work with them to design a product that directly interface to the drive mechanisms,” explains Marhoefer. “This might involve integrating a pinion gear or actuator arm on our drive shaft with provisions to locate and mount the gearmotor. This will provide the correct fits and tolerances to allow the customer to bolt the gearmotor into their equipment and use it with minimal effort at the time of assembly.”

More integration also means gearmotor designs that are smaller and more compact. For instance, Bodine recently introduced an integrated planetary gearbox design that allows the gearmotor to produce twice the torque from a smaller diameter gearbox than comparable parallel shaft gearboxes. “Our customers benefit from the higher torque density and smaller overall gearmotor size, and the integral gearhead design eliminates the need for mounting flanges, couplings, and all related alignment challenges that come with separable gearhead assemblies,” adds Marhoefer.

 

You may also like:


  • Gears of new materials and in custom variations (with emerging…

  • Engineered materials and upfront design work (are leading trends for…
  • gearmotors
    Gearmotors on the move: Driving AGVs

  • Bodine’s new planetary PMDC gearmotors double torque

Filed Under: Gearmotors, Industry News Tagged With: bodineelectric

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Motion Control Design Guide

Tweets from https://twitter.com/Motion_Control/lists/motion-control-tweets
Subscribe Today

from Linear Motion Tips

  • Profitable design of linear motion: Choosing between DIY or turnkey builds
    Engineers building linear motion systems can use ground-up DIY approaches or purchase complete turnkey solutions. Here we explain where each tactic is […]
  • Altra Industrial Motion power transmission components for vertical lift sys
    Altra Industrial Motion supplies technically advanced clutches and brakes, geared motors, speed reducers, couplings, controls and sensors, sheaves, an […]
  • IntelLiDrives high-frequency linear actuators based on voice-coil technolog
    IntelLiDrives ICVCA circular voice-coil positioning stages are compact stages suitable for closed-loop short stroke positioning applications where pre […]
  • Can a linear actuator provide the rigidity and accuracy of a linear stage?
    Although there are no industry standards that define linear actuators and linear stages, generally accepted terminology indicates that a linear actuat […]
  • Why use a multi-start ball screw?
    The easiest way to get higher speed from a ball screw assembly (within the screw’s critical speed limit, which is based on diameter, length, and end f […]

Editor — Lisa Eitel, BSME

Elisabeth Eitel

Lisa (Elisabeth) Eitel is an editor at Design World and its network of sites. She got her engineering degree from Fenn (now Washkewicz) College at Cleveland State University and has 15 years of experience as a technical writer.

Her areas of focus include motors, drives, motion control, power transmission, linear motion, and feedback technologies. She is a judge for the FIRST Robotics Buckeye Regional competitions, an inductee of Tau Beta Pi engineering honor society, and a member of the Society of Women Engineers. Follow her at @DW_LisaEitel.


Editor — Miles Budimir, BSEE

Miles Budimir

Miles Budimir has years of engineering experience designing industrial control systems and has been covering the motion control industry for more than 17 years. Follow him at @DW_Motion.

Subscribe Today

RSS Featured White Papers

  • Helical Planetary Gearboxes: Understanding The Tradeoffs
  • Considerations for adding Linear Guide Features to Industrial equipment
  • Springs Perform Many Key Functions in Aerospace Applications
Tweets from https://twitter.com/Motion_Control/lists/motion-control-tweets

Categories

  • Controls
    • HMIs
    • PC-Based Controllers
    • PLCs + PACs
    • Software
    • Stand-Alone Controllers
  • Drives + Supplies
    • Servo Drives
    • Stepper Drives
  • Encoders
    • Absolute Encoders
    • Incremental Encoders
    • Rotary Encoders
  • Industrial Automation
  • Industry News
  • Integrated Motion Systems
    • Conveyors
    • Gantries + Stages
    • Grippers + End Effectors
    • Robotics
    • Rotary Tables
  • Linear Motion
    • Actuators
    • Linear Encoders
    • Linear Motors
  • Mechanical PT
    • Bearings
    • Belt + chain
    • Brakes + Clutches
    • Couplings
    • Gears + Gearing
    • Lubrication
    • Shock + Vibration Mitigation
    • Springs + Rings + Seals
  • Motors
    • AC Motors
    • Brushless Motors
    • DC Motors
    • Gearmotors
    • Piezo Motors
    • Servo Motors
    • Stepper Motors
  • Networking + IoT
    • Connections + Sliprings
    • Fieldbuses
    • I/O
    • Sensors + Vision
Motion Control Tips

DESIGN WORLD NETWORK

  • Design World Online
  • Coupling Tips
  • Linear Motion Tips
  • Mechatronic Tips
  • Robotic Tips
  • Bearing Tips

MOTION CONTROL TIPS

  • Subscribe to our newsletter
  • Advertise with us
  • Contact us
Follow us on Twitter@motion_control
Add us on FacebookDesign World Network

Copyright © 2018 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in