Designfax weekly eMagazine

Subscribe Today!

Archives

View Archives

Partners

Manufacturing Center
Product Spotlight

Modern Applications News
Metalworking Ideas For
Today's Job Shops

Tooling and Production
Strategies for large
metalworking plants

Mini controllers are big news in motion control

The just-released, thumb-sized FAULHABER MC 3001 motion controllers -- available as MC 3001 B (board-to-board connectors) or MC 3001 P (28-pin plug connector) -- are designed for precise control and positioning tasks of small brush DC motors, linear DC servo motors, or brushless DC motors from the FAULHABER product line from 6 to 30 mm.

The new "mini drive" motion controllers are small yet powerful, delivering 1.4 amps in continuous operation and up to 5 amps peak current. In spite of their extremely compact design, they feature the same functionality and interfaces (RS232 and CANopen) as well as the same encoder interfaces as the other more powerful products of the MC V3.0 generation.

These controllers are ideal for applications in the areas of robotics, automation technology, machine construction, and medical and laboratory technology. Applications in these areas often have limited space but call for high control dynamics and high performance.

Why having exactly the right controller for your motor is important
When selecting a suitable motion controller for a drive system, it is important to answer a few questions first, says Dr. Andreas Wagener, Head of System Engineering at FAULHABER. For example, the movements that are to be carried out must be established, and it must be defined what this means in terms of motor control requirements. Is the drive working continuously or in start-stop mode? Is precise positioning required? What type of load will the drive be moving? What are the load cycles? Is a gearhead required? Which motor is best suited for the application?

"The motion controller is then selected based on the answers -- and it may get interesting, because not every motion controller suits every motor. DC micro motors in particular have unique requirements due to their design," he says.

Dr. Andreas Wagener, Head of System Engineering at FAULHABER

 

 

 

 

At the heart of the DC miniature and micro motors from FAULHABER is the patented, self-supporting, coreless rotor coil with skew-wound design and brush commutation, which rotates around a fixed magnet.

"No cogging torque forms due to the symmetrical air gap, which enables precise positioning and excellent speed control," says Wagener. "Triple continuous torque in overload mode is quite common and easily possible for servo applications, as long as the temperature of the motor winding is monitored. But motors with a diameter of only 22 mm or less don't have an integrated temperature sensor. There simply isn't enough space. So if just any controller is connected to a micro drive, in the worst case the coil may be completely burnt up before any heat is even noticed on the outside.

"Problems like these can be avoided with motion controllers from FAULHABER, which were developed for the requirements of mini and micro drives and tested under real operating conditions. They 'estimate' the winding temperature for the respective motor type using models of varying complexity. This means that the full dynamic range of the motor can be exploited, for example for fast positioning processes. The current is also reduced before the winding overheats. The parameters required are conveniently transmitted to the drive controller with the 'Motor selection dialogue' of the FAULHABER Motion Manager."

"The motion controllers of the MC V3.0 family, which have been tried and tested for years, have limited usability for the micro motors from FAULHABER due to their size and the resolution of the integrated motor current measurement," says Wagener. "This is where the new MC 3001 B/P comes in: The first motion controller that is perfectly suited to smaller servo drives, both in terms of its size and the resolution of the current measurement."

When it comes to what sets the two new controller versions apart, Wagener says the model with flat board-to-board connectors (MC 3001 B) is ideal when several drive controllers are combined on one carrier card. The MC 3001 P variant, he says, features a plug connector with a 2.54-mm grid over three sides. It is easy to integrate into your own configuration, for example, for multi-axis applications in laboratory automation.

"Now, there are finally powerful motion controllers for even the smallest DC drives from FAULHABER," Wagener says, "perfectly matched to the motors both in terms of size and function."

Learn more at www.faulhaber.com/en/news-events/news/new-motion-controllers-mc-3001-p-and-mc-3001-b/.

Source: FAULHABER MICROMO, FAULHABER Motion Magazine

Published June 2021

Rate this article