DC Motors for Missile Fin Actuation Systems
Missile systems require precision control to navigate and intercept targets while being exposed to extreme environments, including wide temperature ranges and heavy vibrations. Within the larger missile system is the missile fin actuation system, which oversees the movement and positioning of the missile fins (also known as control fins) in response to the steering commands from the flight computer. Miniaturized, lightweight technologies are essential to improving the maneuverability of these mission-critical systems, as when a missile is launched, these control fins position the trajectory of the missile towards the intended target.
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Topics:
Aerospace & Defense,
DC motors
Sustainability in Motion at Portescap
If positive, longstanding environmental and social changes are to be realized, the concept of sustainability can’t merely exist as a corporate buzzword. Instead, it must be a corporate movement, with all internal stakeholders aligned behind the goals of driving sustainability and continuous improvement across every sector of the business. Portescap, as an operating company underneath Altra Industrial Motion, is fully embracing this idea with Altra’s four newly adopted Sustainability Pillars:
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Ivenix Infusion System - Ivenix Large Volume Infusion Pump
Ivenix, Inc., a medical technology company dedicated to eliminating infusion-related patient harm, realized the smart infusion pumps used in hospitals today are antiquated and unreliable. The company took a fresh look at the approach and dug into the complex engineering challenges of the market, ultimately resulting in the creation of a game-changing product.
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Dedicated Brushless DC Geared Motor for Pruning Shears Applications
Pruning is the most manual and time-consuming job in the viticulture and horticulture industries. When operator fatigue impacts productivity, efficient power hand tools are the solution to save time and ensure productivity levels are maintained. When compared to manual pruning tools, light and powerful motorized pruning shears help to reduce fatigue and repetitive motion injuries in many contexts such as viticulture, orchard and tree pruning, arboriculture and tree maintenance.
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Topics:
Brushless DC motors
Motion Innovations in Action: Introducing Portescap's Latest 20mm and 32mm Brushless Slotted Flat Motors
Innovation is always in motion at Portescap, and the latest additions to the brushless slotted motors lineup illustrate just that. Introducing the 20mm and 32mm BLDC motors with outer rotor slotted technology, which continue to address a key customer requirement for miniature motors that are performance-driven but that simultaneously excel in environments with constrained space. Let’s explore these newest innovations:
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Topics:
Brushless DC motors,
brushless slotted motors
Motor Technology Options for Handheld Electronic Pipettes
Pipettes are essential laboratory tools that facilitate the transfer of liquid samples from one test receptacle to another. Though pipettes have existed for over a century, modern-day iterations share little with older designs; this is largely due to the shifting nature of laboratory procedures towards utilizing motorized tools and equipment. The inclusion of miniature electric motors within the pipette is an excellent example of this trend.
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The Importance of Safety and Quality When Selecting a Motion Supplier
Selecting a miniature motor provider for your device or application isn’t a simple task. Whether it’s ensuring that the potential supplier has an extensive product and technology portfolio, investigating the availability of Engineer-to-Engineer collaboration, or evaluating their reputation and global presence, there are many items to assess before making the final decision. Another factor paramount to the decision-making process is the supplier’s focus on safety and quality regarding their products, employees, and business approaches.
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Topics:
Quality,
Altra Business System,
SHEQ
Estimate Brush DC Motor Reliability With Confidence
When it comes to manufacturing advanced medical instruments, reliability is a critically important consideration for coreless miniature DC motors. To estimate a motor’s expected lifetime, manufacturers employ reliability tests to measure a motor’s survivability against typical stresses like torque, speed, temperatures and vibration. Because it can take months or years to test a motor’s resistance to these conditions, accelerated life testing (ALT) over an abbreviated schedule is often the most practical testing approach.
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Topics:
Brush DC Motors,
Portescap,
DC motors,
DC motor lifetime testing,
DC motor B10 reliability,
medical instruments,
coreless brush DC motors,
motor reliability analysis,
motor lifetime,
Weibull analysis,
Weibull distribution,
torque speed curve,
DC monitor reliability testing,
time-to-failure,
TTF,
DC motor B10 life
Meet AREBO, a Collaboration of Innovation
Though small in stature, mini motors are mighty in impact! The role that miniature motors play in powering critical applications across the globe is large, especially in the development devices and applications within the medical industry. As a leading provider of mini motors, we continually strive to live our value of saving, improving, and enhancing lives by not only developing miniature motion solutions for medical needs, but by working with universities across the globe to develop new, innovative technologies. This investment in our collective future is personified by Portescap’s CSR (corporate social responsibility) partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT Madras), a leading educational institution in India.
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Topics:
CSR Partnership
The Benefits of Engineer-to-Engineer Collaboration in the Motion Control Industry
When you’re designing a device that requires a miniature motor, selecting a trusted and reputable motion control provider is absolutely crucial. One of the key qualifications to look for while vetting these suppliers is a focus on engineer-to-engineer (or E to E) collaboration! As its name would suggest, engineer-to-engineer collaboration is a process in which engineers representing both the motion supplier and the customer team up to actively design and develop the device, working together through the entire ideation to implementation process.
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Topics:
design engineering
Motion System Options for HVAC Gas Valve Actuators
In HVAC systems that provide heat for enclosed spaces, gas and liquid flow must be controlled and metered accurately using sensing and modulating elements such as flow control valves or isolation valves. Some control valves are opened and closed manually at the valve stem, while electronic valves incorporate an actuator to move the stem with control from a motor and drive system. Designers have three motor types to choose from, depending on the application requirements. Here’s a summary of the motion system options:
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Topics:
Stepper Motors,
brushed DC motors,
Portescap,
DC motors,
motor selection,
electric damper actuators,
HVAC systems,
HVAC,
gas and liquid flow,
fluid control,
linear stepper motors,
actuators,
HVAC gas valve actuators,
position system,
rotary motion,
linear motion,
closed loop positioning
Motion System Selection Considerations for Wheeled Robots
As robots become an integral part of our lives in both industry and in our homes, wheeled robots will be at the forefront of the progression. Their motion systems usually consist of brushed or brushless DC motors coupled with compact planetary gearboxes. When selecting a motor and gearbox, you will need to determine both the product’s operating and maximum conditions and confirm the required speed and torque experienced at the wheel output. Here are some tips to consider to help with your selections:
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Topics:
miniature motors,
Portescap,
motion system,
brushless DC motor,
BlDC motor,
motor selection,
motor torque,
motor speed,
high torque density,
motor and gearbox,
planetary gearbox,
coreless motors,
compact motors,
long life motors,
wheeled robots,
brushed DC motor
Tips to Avoid Stepper Motor Resonance Problems
When an application requires a reliable, low-cost motor with simple operation, stepper motors can be hard to beat. They can be driven step by step without needing an encoder or Hall sensor for rotor position feedback. However, the same straightforward design and driving method that makes stepper motors popular can lead to resonance problems in certain conditions.
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Topics:
Stepper Motors,
Encoders,
Portescap,
prevent resonance,
synchronization,
holding torque,
friction,
braking torque,
positioning applications,
resonance,
avoid resonance,
damping,
commutation,
natural frequency,
avoid natural frequency,
inertia,
microstepping,
viscous friction
Understand What Factors Influence the Stall Torque of a Brushless DC Motor
Apply sufficient power to a brushless DC (BLDC) motor, and it turns. Remove the power, and it stops. But there is a condition in between where power is applied but the motor is not moving. This is a motor that is at stall. In this state, with power applied, it is very much a live motor; just because it isn’t turning doesn’t mean current isn’t flowing through the windings - actually just the opposite. At stall, an excess of current is flowing, heating up the motor coils; if stall conditions are maintained, or frequently repeated, these stresses can quickly add up to trouble.
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Topics:
Portescap,
Brushless DC motors,
motors,
coils,
design engineering,
motor drive package,
stall torque,
design considerations
Key Concepts For Running a Brushed DC Motor as a Generator
Although design engineers know that both brush DC and brushless DC (BLDC) motors can operate as generators, many tend to avoid running a brushed DC motor in generating mode because they believe this strategy is inefficient compared with motor use. Unfortunately, by avoiding using brushed DC motors as a generator, engineers pass up a number of benefits.
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Topics:
BLDC Motors,
Portescap,
driving torque,
miniature DC motors,
Brushed DC motor as a generator,
BLDC motor as a generator,
back-EMF,
power balance,
motor selection,
BLDC motor efficiency,
DC coreless motors
Voice of the Customer Program Announces New Innovative Motion Products Sparked by Customer Insights
The Portescap Voice of the Customer program harnesses our customers’ technical insights and turns them into innovative motion products that solve complex problems for critical applications. Customer collaborations have sparked many new Portescap product technologies, and all of them are 100 percent customizable. We are pleased to announce these innovative new products inspired by customer feedback:
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Topics:
motor innovations,
innovative motion solutions,
Quick Response Digital Linear Actuators,
Dual Motion Can Stack Actuators,
low inertia Disc Magnet,
quick linear acceleration,
smartphones and motion solutions,
customer research,
motion solutions,
SMART Motors,
High Speed Coreless Brush DC Motors,
customer focused products
How To Select a DC Motor Coil Based on the Required Working Point and Power Supply
Although DC motors have a common operating principle, many applications — including portable medical devices like infusion pumps — require one that converts electrical energy to mechanical energy with the highest efficiency to achieve a long, reliable service life. This is typically where an ironless DC motor comes in.
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Topics:
Portescap,
DC motors,
ironless DC motors,
Portescap 16DCT ironless DC motor,
Athlonix ironless DC motor,
DC motor coil selection,
DC motors for portable medical devices,
high-efficiency DC motors,
motor coil selection
National Clean Off Your Desk Day - Let's talk about 5S!
Today is National Clean Off Your Desk Day and it’s a great time to reassess your workspace and organize any chaos and clutter. At Portescap, we’ve determined that the 5S tool is the best tool to help restore order to your desk and create an efficient workspace. 5S is a foundation of the Altra Business System, our set of tools that helps us drive towards satisfying the customer needs.
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Topics:
Altra Business System
Motor Technology Selection: Evaluation Factors
Motors are usually an indispensable element of an application’s motion system. However, selecting the motor is rarely straightforward. Motor technologies all have characteristics that can impact a design in different ways, and will determine whether you choose a brushless DC, coreless DC or stepper motor. Here are some key considerations to help you choose an optimal motor for your application.
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Topics:
Portescap,
Brushless DC motors,
precision,
peak torque,
periodic duty cycle,
coreless DC,
motor technology,
product development,
speed,
lifetime,
mechanical envelope,
duty cycle
Customized and Reliable Stepper Motors Address HVAC Damper Application Extremes
If you have to regulate HVAC system airflow on a constant basis, you’ll need automatic dampers with electric or pneumatic motors that can be controlled by a thermostat or building automation system. When designing an external mount electric damper actuator for an HVAC system, it’s important to review considerations in order to create the best motor-damper combination.
When evaluating a miniature motor to pair with an actuator, keep in mind that it may need to be customized. Ask yourself the following questions:
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Topics:
miniature motors,
Custom motors,
Stepper Motors,
BLDC Motors,
Brushless DC motors,
electric damper actuators,
rotary actuators,
electrical damper rotary actuators,
mechanical strength,
cycle life,
HVAC systems,
HVAC actuators,
miniature motor design elements,
extreme temperatures,
design validation,
rotary assemblies
