Portescap in Motion

An expansion valve is a flow-restricting device present in a refrigeration system that causes a pressure drop of the working fluid. The valve needle remains open during steady-state of operation. The size of the opening or the position of the needle is related to pressure and temperature of the evaporator. When set and controlled properly, an expansion valve will keep the evaporator active throughout its operation.  There are two types of electric expansion valve technologies popular in the market place - pulse width modulated valves, and stepper motor driven valves.

Health care safety is now a top priority and concern among health care practitioners and consumers. In today’s medical devices marketplace, the demand for reliable and safe medical devices and equipment comes not only from the clinical end user, but also from informed patient consumers.

For those involved in the development and manufacture of medical devices and equipment, the demand for safety and quality brings with it new and exciting challenges. How does one build equipment and devices that meet the hundreds of stringent needs of the clinical end user and health care consumer? How does one decide with whom to partner in this far-reaching world of device and equipment manufacturing?

Care givers constantly need products that assist them in achieving the best possible clinical outcomes for their patients. Where do we get motion control solutions, i.e. motors for medical OEMs capable of navigating the demands of the health care industry?

Portescap has recently introduced the P532 Series Disc Magnet Step Motor with encoder to deliver best-in-class motor acceleration and power rate and thus outperform the standard Brushless DC motor in a wide range of applications.

Stepper motors typically run at 2,000 RPM or less in an open loop, while brushless motors that can run at much higher speeds are typically used in closed loop applications. In the last few years, trend is to use a stepper motor in closed loop with a torque higher than a brushless motor system, because of its higher pole count. What we are typically looking at is the middle range of revolutions per minute [RPM] as a sweet spot for disc magnet motors. The sweet spot opens up in applications in the few thousand RPM range, where a closed loop disc magnet motor system can be more cost-effective than a brushless solution.

What is a “linear actuator”? It is actually a simple stepper motor with a built-in leadscrew to directly convert rotary motion in form of discrete steps, into linear motion. Achieving linear motion internal to the motor eliminates the cost of designing a separate transmission mechanism in the system.