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Overhung load adaptors provide load support and contamination protection

Overhung load adaptors (OHLA) provide both overhung radial and axial load support to protect electrified mobile equipment motors from heavy application loads, extending the lifetime of the motor and alleviating the cost of downtime both from maintenance costs and loss of production. They seal out dirt, grime, and other contaminants too. Zero-Max OHLAs are available in an extensive offering of standard models (including Extra-Duty options) for typical applications or customized designs.
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Why choose electric for linear actuators?

Tolomatic has been delivering a new type of linear motion technology that is giving hydraulics a run for its money. Learn the benefits of electric linear motion systems, the iceberg principle showing total cost of ownership, critical parameters of sizing, and conversion tips.
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New AC hypoid inverter-duty gearmotors

Bodine Electric Company introduces 12 new AC inverter-duty hypoid hollow shaft gearmotors. These type 42R-25H2 and 42R-30H3 drives combine an all-new AC inverter-duty, 230/460-VAC motor with two hypoid gearheads. When used with an AC inverter (VFD) control, these units deliver maintenance-free and reliable high-torque output. They are ideal for conveyors, gates, packaging, and other industrial automation equipment that demands both high torque and low power consumption from the driving gearmotor.
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Next-gen warehouse automation: Siemens, Universal Robots, and Zivid partner up

Universal Robots, Siemens, and Zivid have created a new solution combining UR's cobot arms with Siemens' SIMATIC Robot Pick AI software and Zivid's 3D sensors to create a deep-learning picking solution for warehouse automation and intra-logistics fulfillment. It works regardless of object shape, size, opacity, or transparency and is a significant leap in solving the complex challenges faced by the logistics and e-commerce sectors.
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Innovative DuoDrive gear and motor unit is UL/CSA certified

The DuoDrive integrated gear unit and motor from NORD DRIVE-SYSTEMS is a compact, high-efficiency solution engineered for users in the fields of intralogistics, pharmaceutical, and the food and beverage industries. This drive combines a IE5+ synchronous motor and single-stage helical gear unit into one compact housing with a smooth, easy-to-clean surface. It has a system efficiency up to 92% and is available in two case sizes with a power range of 0.5 to 4.0 hp.
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BLDC flat motor with high output torque and speed reduction

Portescap's 60ECF brushless DC slotted flat motor is the newest frame size to join its flat motor portfolio. This 60-mm BLDC motor features a 38.2-mm body length and an outer-rotor slotted configuration with an open-body design, allowing it to deliver improved heat management in a compact package. Combined with Portescap gearheads, it delivers extremely high output torque and speed reduction. Available in both sensored and sensorless options. A great choice for applications such as electric grippers and exoskeletons, eVTOLs, and surgical robots.
Learn more and view all the specs.

Application story: Complete gearbox and coupling assembly for actuator system

Learn how GAM engineers not only sized and selected the appropriate gear reducers and couplings required to drive two ball screws in unison using a single motor, but how they also designed the mounting adapters necessary to complete the system. One-stop shopping eliminated unnecessary components and resulted in a 15% reduction in system cost.
Read this informative GAM blog.

Next-gen motor for pump and fan applications

The next evolution of the award-winning Aircore EC motor from Infinitum is a high-efficiency system designed to power commercial and industrial applications such as HVAC fans, pumps, and data centers with less energy consumption, reduced emissions, and reduced waste. It features an integrated variable frequency drive and delivers upward of 93% system efficiency, as well as class-leading power and torque density in a low-footprint package that is 20% lighter than the previous version. Four sizes available.
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Telescoping linear actuators for space-constrained applications

Rollon's new TLS telescoping linear actuators enable long stroke lengths with minimal closed lengths, which is especially good for applications with minimal vertical clearance. These actuators integrate seamlessly into multi-axis systems and are available in two- or three-stage versions. Equipped with a built-in automated lubrication system, the TLS Series features a synchronized drive system, requiring only a single motor to achieve motion. Four sizes (100, 230, 280, and 360) with up to 3,000-mm stroke length.
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Competitively priced long-stroke parallel gripper

The DHPL from Festo is a new generation of pneumatic long-stroke grippers that offers a host of advantages for high-load and high-torque applications. It is interchangeable with competitive long-stroke grippers and provides the added benefits of lighter weight, higher precision, and no maintenance. It is ideal for gripping larger items, including stacking boxes, gripping shaped parts, and keeping bags open. It has high repetition accuracy due to three rugged guide rods and a rack-and-pinion design.
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Extend your range of motion: Controllers for mini motors

FAULHABER has added another extremely compact Motion Controller without housing to its product range. The new MC3603 controller is ideal for integration in equipment manufacturing and medical tech applications. With 36 V and 3 A (peak current 9 A), it covers the power range up to 100 W and is suitable for DC motors with encoder, brushless drives, or linear motors.
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When is a frameless brushless DC motor the right choice?

Frameless BLDC motors fit easily into small, compact machines that require high precision, high torque, and high efficiency, such as robotic applications where a mix of low weight and inertia is critical. Learn from the experts at SDP/SI how these motors can replace heavier, less efficient hydraulic components by decreasing operating and maintenance costs. These motors are also more environmentally friendly than others.
View the video.

Tiny and smart: Step motor with closed-loop control

Nanotec's new PD1-C step motor features an integrated controller and absolute encoder with closed-loop control. With a flange size of merely 28 mm (NEMA 11), this compact motor reaches a max holding torque of 18 Ncm and a peak current of 3 A. Three motor versions are available: IP20 protection, IP65 protection, and a motor with open housing that can be modified with custom connectors. Ideal for applications with space constraints, effectively reducing both wiring complexity and installation costs.
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Closed loop steppers drive new motion control applications

According to the motion experts at Performance Motion Devices, when it comes to step motors, the drive technique called closed loop stepper is making everything old new again and driving a burst of interest in the use of two-phase step motors. It's "winning back machine designers who may have relegated step motors to the category of low cost but low performance."
Read this informative Performance Motion Devices article.

Intelligent compact drives with extended fieldbus options

The intelligent PD6 compact drives from Nanotec are now available with Profinet and EtherNet/IP. They combine motor, controller, and encoder in a space-saving package. With its 80-mm flange and a rated power of 942 W, the PD6-EB is the most powerful brushless DC motor of this product family. The stepper motor version has an 86-mm flange (NEMA 34) and a holding torque up to 10 Nm. Features include acceleration feed forward and jerk-limited ramps. Reduced installation time and wiring make the PD6 series a highly profitable choice for machine tools, packaging machines, or conveyor belts.
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New, fast solar wind propulsion system is aim of NASA, UAH study

By Jim Steele, University of Alabama in Huntsville

Scientists at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) are set to use computer models to investigate the results of experimental testing at NASA'S Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville to develop an engineering tool to design missions using a new type of long-distance space propulsion.

The Heliopause Electrostatic Rapid Transit System Electric Sail (HERTS E-Sail) is entering basic research testing at Marshall. The propulsion system, which uses no propellant, would harness the solar wind to travel into interstellar space. It could send spacecraft to the edge of our solar system, the heliopause, faster than ever before.

Heliopause Electrostatic Rapid Transit System (HERTS). [Image Credit: Alexandre Szames, Antigravite, Paris, France]

 

 

Some of the missions contemplated are very long-distance voyages, says Dr. Gary Zank, director of UAH's Center for Space Plasma and Aeronomic Research (CSPAR) and chair of the university's Department of Space Science, who points out that the distance to the heliopause and interstellar medium is three times the distance from Earth to Pluto. Scientists hope the new propulsion system can halve the time it takes for missions to enter interstellar space.

"The interstellar medium is currently the region that the Voyager spacecraft are exploring. This could be a breakthrough propulsion technology for these kinds of very ambitious missions," says Dr. Zank, who in an earlier phase of the project helped design a spacecraft payload for an extended HERTS mission.

The HERTS E-Sail propulsion system has exposed wires (or tethers) extending from the spacecraft through which an electrical current is passed, Dr. Zank says.

"This generates a magnetic field that couples to the solar wind and leads to charged particles in the solar wind exerting a force on the spacecraft system," he says.

The sun releases protons and electrons into the solar wind at very high speeds.

"Because the solar wind is a supersonic flow, the kinetic pressure exerted by the solar wind is converted by the HERTS system to spacecraft motion," Dr. Zank says. "The solar wind flows at typical speeds of 300 to 500 kilometers per second, so coupling the spacecraft to the solar wind can yield quite a substantial force on a small spacecraft. It does, however, require very long wires or tethers, a kilometer long or even more, which makes their thickness, weight, and deployment characteristics challenging."

Currently, Dr. Zank and UAH post-doctoral student Xiaocan Li are developing a theoretical model using sophisticated kinetic simulations to investigate the results of the NASA experiment and the extension of that laboratory simulation to conditions appropriate to the solar wind.

"The simulations will use one of the most advanced kinetic codes yet developed," says Dr. Zank. "It was developed at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where Xiaocan Li did much of his doctoral thesis work."

Computer modeling at UAH will be a three-step process, according to UAH research scientist Dr. Kenneth Wright, who is leading the testing at Marshall's High Intensity Solar Environment Test system, a chamber that will simulate the plasma environment of space. Dr. Wright is funded through a sub-contract with the Jacobs Engineering and Science Services and Skills Augmentation (ESSSA) Group at Marshall.

The first phase will model the data from the chamber experiment. A second phase will use the model with actual plasma properties present in the solar wind. Then a third phase will transform the model into an engineering tool.

"We want to parameterize it enough to get a realistic, simple tool that we can use in mission design," Dr. Wright says.

Dr. Kenneth Wright, CSPAR research scientist, is leading the E-Sail wire testing in MSFC's High Intensity Solar Environment Test system. [Photo: Michael Mercier. UAH]

 

 

"The space plasma physics interaction with many multiple-kilometer-length bare, positively charged wires is very complex and has not been adequately modeled," says Bruce M. Wiegmann, the Marshall principal investigator for the HERTS study. "This E-Sail engineering model development is one of the key products for Phase II of this study. The engineering model being developed at UAH relies heavily upon the data being collected from testing at one of Marshall's plasma chambers, and this experimental test data will be used to adequately benchmark the codes being developed."

During the tests, which are expected to be conducted for two or three months, scientists and engineers from UAH and Marshall will examine the proton and electron interaction with a positively charged 1-mm stainless steel tube that will represent a wire of the E-Sail.

Optimizing spacecraft mass means that the flight system will probably utilize aluminum wires, Dr. Wright says. However, the laboratory experiment will use stainless steel since the mass of the test object is not a primary concern.

The experiments focus on measuring what is happening within a "sheath" created when the positively charged wire interacts with negative electrons and deflected protons. The interactions inside the sheath are what create the propulsive force, as the repelled protons prompt an opposite reaction to push a spacecraft away from the sun and toward the heliopause.

"Right now, we're just trying to understand ion deflection in the region surrounding the positively biased wire," says Dr. Wright.

The electron interaction information will be used to develop specifications for an electron emitter that must be part of the spacecraft in order to return the collected electrons by the positive wires to space.

The HERTS study, funded in 2015 by NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD), was one of seven down-selected Phase II NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) projects.

"When NASA HQ reviewed the various Phase II submissions, and selected the HERTS proposal for further investments, they clearly stated that a merit of the study was in the development of a spacecraft engineering model, which would quantify how much thrust could be produced in varying E-Sail systems," Wiegmann says.

Published May 2016

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