The Rise of Servo Motion Control Systems

In today’s world of business, automation in operation is now the basis of efficiency and productivity. Hence, in order for a company to be on top of their competitors, it needs to utilize acquire methods and facilities. One of which is the use of servo motion control systems. With these mechanics, business operations will surely be seamless and easy while being able to boost cost efficiency at the same time. However, with the many similar products in the market nowadays, it can sometimes be very hard to choose between these products.

The mechanics of servo motion control system

When it comes to servo motion control system, there are a lot of machines to choose from. Some of them are classified as alternating current (AC) drives, direct current (DC) drives, brushless servo drives, low voltage drives, and a lot more. All of these mechanics are effective. However, in order for you to be able to fully optimize your usage of servo motion control systems, you need to identify which of these machines best suit your operations. For example, brushless servo drives can sometimes be better to use than other type of servo drives. But, in some cases, brushless servo drives may also not be that effective.

Where to find the best servo drives?

As mentioned earlier, there are a lot of companies who offer similar products such as servo drive. Knowing this, you have to be able to select the best provider so that you can fully utilize the products that you use.

When it comes to providing top of the line servo drives such as brushless servo drives, Servotronix is one of the most sought after company. Servotronix manufactures, develops, and markets standard and customized motion electronic products which mainly focus on digital servo drives. With this company, you can be assured of getting top of the line products all the time. In fact, being in the industry for many years, Servotronix is the most trusted company when it comes to providing top of the line servo motion control system.

What can I benefit from these motion control drives?

When being able to utilize them properly, servo motion control drives can bring about a lot of benefits to you company. Some of them include:

• 1.       Efficiency in work – since servo motion control systems do not need that much of attending, work labors can now focus on more important things (such as decision making). Through this, efficiency can be greatly boost since work loads are now distributed among employees accordingly.
• 2.       Lower cost of operation – servo motion control systems can also be your way to be able to lower your cost of operation. By not committing mistakes and too much social interaction among employees, servo motion control systems will greatly boost a company’s profits.
• 3.       Other benefits – aside from work and cost efficiency, servo drive systems will greatly boost your company’s accuracy in work, accuracy in operation, and increase in the company’s profit.

Brushless Servo Drives-An Overview

Brushless servo drives are a kind of all digital, précised and DSP based servo drives, which are able to supply up to “32 A peak current” continuous. These servo drives are specially designed to control the velocity, torque or the position of the servo motors as well as for motion control. Often a Low voltage drive is used with the brushless servo drives to save energy by controlling the motion of the servo. Energy saving with the variable torque is an easy process, which only needs a little payment.

Brushless servo drives are specially designed for the brushless servo motors and these drives are completely suitable for the speed, torque, position, and applications of electronic line shafting. The brushless servo drives are commonly made to control the brushless servo motors, but they are also able to handle the brushed servo motors as well.

The brushless servo motor drives are a compact and completely housed unit with all front panel connection through the typical pluggable connectors. This feature has made this servo drives easier to service as well as easier to integrate.

Features and benefits of the Brushless servo drives are mentioned below:

• The brushless servo drives are generally available in three models, which cover the major part of the servo application including the motion control and low voltage drive
• Line-operated, 50/60 Hz, 115 - 240 VAC, available in single or three phase
• The “all digital design” simplifies the process of tuning and drive setup and also eliminates the chance of analog drift.
• Fast step power interface

·        Sinusoidal fluctuation vector power algorithm

• Step multiplier
• Typical placing of PID with anti-windup and feedforward technology
• Support for BLAC, Brush DC and BLDC servos

·        PC based modification through serial port

·        Disparity encoder input

How do the brushless servos help in motion control?

Motion control is a kind of automation in which the velocity or the position of a machine is controlled by using some kind of device like an electric motor, hydraulic pump, or a servo. This process is commonly used in the CNC machines or in the robotics.

These are the basics of Brushless servo motors. With the usage of low voltage drive technology, the servo drives are capable of consuming 25% more power at a speed of 63%.

What Are Brushless servo drives?

Brushless servo drives are DSP based all-digital, precision servo drive amplifiers, which are able of supplying “16 A peak” current constant, as well as “32 A peak” up to 230 VAC. The brushless servo drives are designed to perfectly control the position or velocity and torque of a number of brushless torque and servo motors. The design of this servo drive simplifies the commissioning and set up of the brushless servo motors, as the system software of brushless servo drives needs little more than the ordinary ones.

Features of brushless servo drives:

• Several models which cover the major parts of the requirements of the servo application
• Line operated, 50/60 Hz, 115-240 VAC, single or three phase
• The complete digital design of brushless servo drives simplifies the drive tuning and drive set up and removes the analog drift
• Complete fault protection and “optically isolated I/O”
• PWM, ±10VDC, encoder-follower and step-direction control inputs accommodated
• Internal regenerative power control circuit, which requires an external resistor
• Graphical client interface based on PC for motion control, monitoring and commissioning. This interface is attached with the drive through an “optically isolated USB port”.

Benefits of brushless servo drives:

• High efficiency or power saving- The original drive technology of brushless servo drives use low power and offer a high efficiency. It represents a great money saving technique on the 24/7 application than the ordinary servo drives
• High inertial loads- The brushless servo drives use “sophisticated motion control algorithms” to take the advantage of high-torque capacity, offering direct-drive of high inertia loads such as the belt drives and flywheels. It is much more than the traditional servos. This servo drive also provides a smooth responsive pointing control.
• More torque in a lesser price- Brushless servo drives provides 2-4 times more constant torque in lesser price ($300-400 less) than the conventional servo motors.

Brushless Servo Drives

Brushless servo drives are automatic instruments that monitor the performance of any mechanism based on the continuous feedback that it receives. Basically, it is a closed loop mechanism that sends rectification signals if the performance of the machine / instrument is deviating from the commanded data. Now, the instrument that really monitors the performance is called the servo drive. It is just an electronic amplifier that gets linked to a servo mechanism to monitor its performance. Servo drives can be brushed or brushless. While brushed motors provide exchange via physical contacts, brushless motors provide electronic exchange without physical contact, with the help of sinusoidal or the trapezoidal drives. These trapezoidal drives can energize two motor windings simultaneously before proceeding to the next pair of windings. Sinusoidal servo drives, on the other hand, can provide do this to three motor windings simultaneously with the sinusoidal signals.

Brushless motors work quite like AC motors where the rotor movement is caused by a dynamic magnet field. Brushless motors are known to have predicable linear characteristics. Brushless servo drives are AC or DC types. It is basically the way the motor is powered gives it the name AC or DC.

Read more about ac servo drives.

Torque developed by brushless servo drives depends on the control technology used. Type of control is determined by the feedback scheme exercised. DC motors use Hall sensors for feedback, whereas AC motors use resolver or encoder for feedback. Speed accuracy is very high in fact with the more popular brushless drive, almost close to 0%. This is due to the presence of a digital encoder and the drive controller regulation of position. High torque to inertia ratios provides high acceleration and deceleration rates with dynamic response.  Controller bandwidth is almost 8 times higher than the Brush DC drive. The Brushless DC motors have good thermal characteristics too. Motor efficiencies range anywhere around 90-96 % and controller efficiency around 97% giving overall efficiencies far superior than brush DC systems.

The benefits of brushless servo drives are:

• Very precise average speed control over a very wide speed range
• High dynamic response ensuring precise instantaneous speed control
• Constant power factor meaning lowest possible input current
• Smaller in size than the brush type
• No regular motor maintenance is needed
• Feedback device (encoder) is fitted internally and thereby less subject to errors
• Higher overall efficiency

Brushless servo drives find their usage in CNC machines, blowmolding and a host of other industrial applications -