Drives & Controls April 2022

Visitors to Oriental Motor (UK)’s stand (J110) at this year’s Drives and Controls will be able to seek motor selection and sizing advice as well as learn about the wide range of motors and drives available, including the AZ Series which offers a variety of communications systems. Visitors to Drives and Controls 2022 at the NEC, Birmingham (5 – 7 April) will be able to network and exchange information on the latest developments in all areas of design engineering. Among the pressures faced by engineers, the shortages of parts, particularly PLCs, is high on the list of concerns. The worldwide shortages are causing the automation industry to reassess its supply chain and to look for motor design that offers maximum choices and broad compatibility. The current shortages are already manifesting as backlogs of several months and there is little sign that production delays will be eased soon. Some industry watchers believe the delays to machine production will continue into 2023. This is a sobering thought for an industry that is slowly, cautiously emerging from a worldwide pandemic. One sensible course of action is to ensure that parts that can be procured have as broad compatibility as possible. If a driver and motor can be used with as many PLC options as possible, it relieves a considerable headache experienced by the purchasing department to find precisely the right PLC for efficient communication within the system. Multi-protocol comms A particular highlight at this year’s exhibition will be Oriental Motor’s AZ series, based on stepper motor technology. The AZ series expands the communication possibilities with support for protocols from all the major players in the automation industry, namely EtherNet IP, EtherCAT and Profinet, making them equivalent to many traditional servo motors. It not only has a performance capability of 1,000 steps per revolution of the motor (with each step representing 0.36 degrees of rotation) but microstepping increases this to 10,000 steps/revolution or 0.036 degrees/step as the driver uses magnetic control to split each step into smaller ones. In addition to the elimination of the conventional PID loop used in servo motors, the design affords precision fine tuning of parameters (e.g., load, motion profile, environmental temperature) to maintain a high performance. The absence of a PID n ADVERTORIAL FEATURE Oriental Motor (UK) BROADENS CHOICES WITH MULTI-PROTOCOL MOTOR SELECTION Figure 1: Communication is key - the AZ series offers multi-protocol comms support Figure 2:The AZ Series can outperform servomotors inmany applications