Mitsubishi's Electric Car Future?

Bill Moore's EVWorld Blog reports that Mitsubishi is developing a new electric vehicle. Each wheel incorporates an in-wheel motor rotor, in-wheel motor stator, brake rotor, and brake caliper. Because an electric motor controls the rotation and braking of each wheel separately, the configuration eliminates the need for transmission, drive shaft, and differential. Read how the design works here.

No Wash Down Worries

Every external component of AEG’s hose-proof IEC motor, including shafts, is made from 304 stainless steel. Targeted for the food, process, and pharmaceutical industries, IP66 motors feature double vacuum, pressure-impregnated stator windings, sealed bearings, and four ports for drain plugs — allowing high-pressure wash down. More details are described here.

Considering Energy Costs

Here’s something for engineers to consider when selecting industrial motors: Over a 10-year period, energy costs may account for 90% or more of total usage costs. An Energy Savings Tool from Baldor Electric helps specifying engineers compare existing motors to those with NEMA Premium™ efficiencies.

A Baldor tutorial in Design News describes one way to increase energy savings.

Elmo Motion Control

Elmo Whistle Miniature Digital Servo Drive

Elmo Motion Control's Whistle is a matchbox-sized [2in3] digital servo drive delivering up to 500 watts of continuous power at up to 99% efficiency, and weighing only 1.76 oz (50 g). This compact servo drive can deliver a peak of one kilowatt power. Designed to meet many application requirements, the Whistle provides sinusoidal current, velocity, and full position control.

Michigan Industrial Controls Inc.

Industrial Control Repair Service

Michigan Industrial Controls provides repair and upgrade services for servo, vector, and frequency drives. MIC technicians have experience servicing brands such as Baldor, Control Techniques, Phase Motion, US Drives, Kollmorgen, and more.

Follow this link for more detailed information.

Danaher Motion

New SECO AC Servo Fusion Drive

The new SECO FX4000 Fusion™ all-digital vector drive combines the functionality of a high performance AC flux vector drive, high horsepower servo drive, programmable motion controller, and PLC into a single, compact package.

To view Danaher Motion's extensive product line, follow this link.

How to Apply Vector Control

Field-oriented (vector) step-motor control offers significant advances over microstepping. So says this E-booklet entitled “Vector-Controlled Motor Drives.” The booklet explains how engineers can achieve — from step motors — performance comparable to brushless dc permanent-magnet synchronous motors.

A Drive to Lower Global Warming

Engineers know that drives technology, in combination with electric motors, generates considerable energy savings. Many, however, are surprised to learn that these energy savings, when multiplied by hundreds of thousands of applications worldwide, have a very positive impact on the environment. This article from ABB describes some typical greenhouse-lowering drive applications. For more about ABB Drives technology in general, look here. Click ABB Review Special Report, then click Energy Efficiency.

York Industries, Inc.

Belt Tensioners

York Industries has designed four types of timing belt tensioners as stock solutions to your drive designs: Static Slot, Dynamic Slot, Static Pivot, and Dynamic Pivot. Visit York's Web site to configure a tensioner for your application. Components in stock. Call York for next day delivery.

How Do You Pull a Boat Through a Chocolate River?

Ask the special effects engineers who worked on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. To keep the trip through the chocolate factory smooth for the actor/passengers, WYKO Slough and Renold Chain in the UK put together a large pitch roller chain and sprocket drive system. Read the details here.

A Tractor Running on Diesel and Electric

The ProHybrid EECVT by Case Tractors uses electrical power in the driveline, while a diesel engine runs the mechanical drive and electrical system. Under development since 1999, Case does not have a date to introduce the concept tractor to the market. Read more by following this link.

Ward Leonard Electric Company, Inc.

MDR Rotary Relays

Ward Leonard introduces a more reliable, more efficient and longer-lasting set of MDR Rotary Relays designed as exact replacements or for new applications. The new models meet the stringent requirements of MIL-R-19523B (SH) and QPL, are competitively priced and readily available. The Ward Leonard MDR Rotary Relay Series is the optimal choice for high-stress 21st century applications.

PI (Physik Instrumente) L.P.

Hexapod 6DOF Parallel Kinematics Micropostioner

This new, compact, parallel-kinematics micropositioning system provides six degrees of freedom and micrometer-range precision. Compared with its (higher-load) predecessor, the new Hexapod is distinguished by significantly higher positioning speeds (50 mm/s and 300 mrad/s) and a lower price. Read more.

Automationdirect.com

Incredible Savings on Servo Systems

AutomationDirect offers great prices on SureServo fully-digital AC brushless servo systems (brake and non-brake models). This new line of eight standard servo motors, ranging from 100W-3kW, operates in combination with one of three standard servo drives. Visit SureServo.com for more information.

ICs Feature Sensorless Stall Detection

AMI Semiconductor has announced two new stepper motor driver and controller ICs: AMIS-30623 and AMIS-30624. Both incorporate sensorless stall detection. Designed for remote and multiple axes positioning, these chips provide LIN and serial (12C) interface connectivity. With the sensorless stall detection, engineers can achieve position calibration and semi-closed-loop operation. Full details can be found on the company’s Web site.

Enabling Motion Control Software

A white paper from Delta Tau Data Systems and posted by ControlDesign.com describes how software development tools aid in building advanced motion control systems. “Often,” the report states, “these tools will employ more sophisticated algorithms than the controllers themselves.” Download the entire paper here, and read more about Delta Tau motion control products here.

Early Exposure to Motion Control

Thanks to a grant from the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), Alexandria Technical College and six high schools in Minnesota offer industrial technology courses in automation and motion control. Besides the grant, software from Rockwell Automation worth nearly $30,000 was provided to the schools. Read how these students are introduced to the world of motion control, PLCs, and automation here.

Tech Library Offers Excellent Resource

SDP/SI offers a comprehensive technical library featuring topics such as motors, micromotors, design hints, and engineering reference tables. For instance, click on motors and you’ll find an introduction to step motors including primary characteristics, damping, step motor driving and control, and considerations for using step motors in your designs. Follow this link and start learning.

Siemens Honors 12 Best Inventors

For 10 years, Siemens has presented its employees with Inventor of the Year awards, and 2005 was no exception. This year, nearly 9,000 inventions were reported at Siemens, reflecting the many areas of technology the company is known for — from automotive electronics to power generation to communication. Of those, 12 inventions were recognized. All 12 winners and their inventions are highlighted here.

Fire Up the Creative Juices

Authors suffer from writer's block, but what do engineers suffer from when their creativity seems to dry up? There may not be a name for it, but we've all had dry periods when the most creative thought is what to fix for dinner. No more. Creativity at Work provides some ideas to get you fired up again, including Effort and Flow: The Zone of Creativity and Imagination at Work and Play or Ideas are the Currency of the New Economy. Get going again at this link.

Want To Know What Other Engineers Are Talking About?

GlobalSpec has created a place so that you can find out. It’s called Conference Room 4 (CR4), a new site for the engineering and technical community. It’s your place to talk about stories of interest to engineers, ask for technical help, and get answers to burning questions. Additionally, at CR4 you can keep a journal (blog), moderate discussions, and make friends with your colleagues from around the country and around the world.

Some of the recent discussions at CR4:

Can a car get 100 MPG?

Metal filling on a shaft

Machined cavities in pistons improve fuel economy

Complimentary Subscription to Electronic Design Magazine

Electronic Design magazine delivers leading-edge technology, product, and applications news to electronics engineers and engineering managers responsible for the design and development of EOEM products and systems. Get your complimentary subscription here.

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