CNS STEPPER MOTOR

Robots perform specific, well-defined tasks like assembly-line work, surgical assistance, warehouse delivery/retrieval, and even tasks such as clearing mines. Today’s robots can handle both highly repetitive tasks as well as complex functions requiring flexibility in orientation and action (Figure 1). As technology improves, speed and flexibility improves, cost goes down, and adoption will increase. We are nearing an inflection point in industry whereby the cost effectiveness of using robots is better than labor. Additionally, advances in machine vision, computing power, and networking are enabling the use of robots for a wider range of applications. Figure 1:   Robotics  are now routinely used in applications ranging from small pick-and-place machines to large auto assembly lines where they lift, place, install, and even weld parts and subassemblies. (Source:  IStockPhoto.com ) Advances in technology make modern high-performance machines possible due to: Sophis...

A stepper motor is an electromechanical device it converts electrical power into mechanical power. Also it is a brushless, synchronous electric motor that can divide a full rotation into an expansive number of steps. The motor’s position can be controlled accurately without any feedback mechanism, as long as the motor is carefully sized to the application. Stepper motors are similar to switched reluctance motors. Unless you will be using external stepper motor drivers, choose motors with rated current of at least 1.2A, and at most 2.0A for the Duet 0.6 and Duet 0.8.5, or 3A for the Duet 2. Plan to run each stepper motor at between 50% and 85% of its rated current. Size: Nema 17 is the most popular size used in 3D printers. Nema 14 is an alternative in a highly-geared extruder. Use Nema 23 motors if you cannot get sufficient torque from long Nema 17 motors. Avoid motors with rated voltage (or product of rated current and phase resistance) > 4V or inductance > 4mH. C...

The most popular design of linear actuators, the external nut configuration is simple, compact, and offers a high level of design flexibility. In the external nut configuration, the shaft of the stepper motor is replaced with a lead screw. In a typical application, the motor is fixed in position and an apparatus is attached to the nut. As the lead screw rotates, the external nut travels along the length of the screw, providing linear motion. The length and the pitch of the lead screw of linear actuator are highly customizable, making the external nut configuration useful for a wide variety of applications. Numerous mounting options paired with the many types of nuts available help tailor this particular linear actuator to best fit a user’s specific situation. In addition, the external nut configuration helps achieve greater acceleration and maximum speeds than other configurations while also offering greater efficiency in terms of power consumption. There are a few limitations...

Stepper and servo motors differ in two key ways, in their basic construction and how they are controlled. Stepper motors have a large number of poles, magnetic pairs of north and south poles generated either by a permanent magnet or an electric current, typically 50 to 100 poles. In comparison, servo motors have very few poles, often 4 to 12 in total. Driving a stepper motor to a precise position is much simpler than driving a servo motor. With a stepper motor, a single drive pulse will move the motor shaft one step, from one pole to the next. Since the step size of a given motor is fixed at a certain amount of rotation, moving to a precise position is simply a matter of sending the right number of pulses. In contrast servo motors read the difference between the current encoder position and the position they were commanded to and adjust the current required to move to the correct position. With today's digital electronics, stepper motors are much easier to control than servo moto...