Blogs

Why Is Km So Important for Robotics Applications? For certain applications, a motor’s Km is critical to defining motor output for the amount of heat generated. These applications are robotic joints, gimbals, fine positioning systems, and low voltage applications.  Km is not as useful in power transmission applications that are constantly running at higher motor…

Selecting Motors for Robots with Tight Thermal Constraints Ok, you are selecting a motor and you click around. There are plenty of motors with 1 NM of torque at 1000 rpm you require. Pick the one that is available and has the best combination of size, weight, features, and price. Wait, is it that simple?…

Are There Motors Specific to Robots and Cobots? Robot Motor Like most applications, early embodiments usually include available components from existing sources. As applications and processes improve the robot becomes more refined and in tune with the end process. For example, a robot for robotic surgery will differ greatly from a collaborative robot for picking…

How to Select a Motor for a Robot Joint Today’s robot joints have highly integrated motors, encoders, gearing solutions, and sometimes brakes. It is common to use a direct drive frameless torque motor kit coupled to a precision high ratio gear system. While these two terms “direct drive” and “precision gear” tend to conflict, the…

Performance Benefits of Air Core Axial Flux Motors Introduction Axial Flux motor architecture is a form of rotary actuation that delivers torque in a non-traditional form factor. Unlike radial flux motors, where coils run in line, or parallel with the rotation axis, axial flux coils sit perpendicular to the axis of rotation, and when combined…

A Guide to Custom Motors The term Custom Motor has many meanings. Let’s start with a definition of some terms to make this easier. Custom Motor is typically a motor that has unique features and performance specific to the application and this set of requirements is not available when the project is started. Many custom…

Gimbal Motor Gimbals can be found on unmanned vehicles, telescopes, satellites, ground communications systems, infrared communications systems, lidar systems, security monitoring systems, and many more mobile and static platforms. Anytime you wish to provide rotation and elevation (pan and tilt), some form of a gimbal is required. A gimbal is a two-axis motion system where…

Challenges for Motors Operating in Vacuum Environments Allient specializes in the design and manufacture of Vacuum-Rated Motors and Actuators for Semiconductor Equipment, Medical Devices, Precision Optical Systems, and Space Equipment (down to 10^-9 Torr). Traditional motors, actuators, and their electronic controllers are not compatible with vacuum environments without major design and material changes. There are…

Electric & Frameless Motors What Is An Electric Motor? It is an electromagnetic machine that creates torque or force through a combination of electromagnetism and sometimes (but not always) permanent magnets. If you don’t consider holding everything together and providing some output (shaft) to drive a load, then it is only the electromagnetic components, rotor…