Communication is key for Oriental Motor at Drives & Controls 2022

Oriental Motor (UK) will be exhibiting at the Drives & Controls show on stand J110, showcasing the AZ Series which supports the popular communications protocols. There will also be experts on hand to discuss motor selection and sizing as well as the company’s wide range of motors and drives.

Oriental Motor’s AZ series is based on stepper motor technology. It supports multiple protocols, ensuring that it can be used with a wider selection of PLCs. In today’s climate of parts shortages, the company says the capability to communicate with a variety of PLCs optimises design possibilities.

The AZ series expands the communication possibilities with support for protocols from all the major players in the automation industry, including 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 (such as load, motion profile and environmental temperature) to maintain a high performance. The absence of a PID loop also significantly reduces the part’s cost; Oriental Motor says the AZ series is often less than half the price of an equivalent power servo motor.

Another advantage of the AZ series is that there is no need to retune to maintain optimal performance, or hunting (where the servo motor over-corrects itself or is unable to settle into position) or chatter (where rapid hunting causes vibration and noise). As a site may have multiple lines, retuning can account for a large chunk of an engineer’s time or be responsible for extending down time for maintenance – this is avoided with the AZ series.

In applications which are not rigid, such as belt-driven pulleys, the AZ series can easily accommodate a flexing belt.

The ability to accelerate and decelerate faster than an equivalent power servo motor makes the AZ series the perfect choice for rapid indexing and short movement applications.

The AZ series is ideal for use in applications 750W / 1hp and under.

Visit Oriental Motor (UK) at Drives and Controls 2022 – stand J110 – to see the range of products available and discuss projects and choices with experienced engineering staff.

Staff can provide advice on sizing and motor selection, using a checklist of parameters, such as size, energy consumption, as well as motor design where weight, size, acceleration and deceleration rates all need to be considered.

The company’s range of AC controllers, DC controllers, gearboxes will be showcased, together with Oriental Motor’s wide selection of drivers, including analogue drive, closed loop vector and open loop drivers as well as other options. In addition, there will be a wide-ranging selection of motors – brushless and DC types, as well as induction motors and linear actuators; stepper motors and variable speed models. Oriental Motor (UK) also has various rotary stages, servos and fans.