Motion control represents the nervous system of the plant floor in every industry. And ever-increasing time-to-market pressures impose greater demands on motion technology for speed, accuracy, and resilience.

"Ideally, open systems can reduce both the initial cost of a control system, as well as the total cost of ownership over its expected lifecycle," notes Paul Ruland, PLC and I/O product manager at AutomationDirect. He believes the move toward open systems may hinge on "interoperability issues between multiple vendor products and the availability for quality technical support for the resulting system." (For more, click here.)

Modularity can increase flexibility, according to George Martin, director of product management/ linear motion products at Bosch Rexroth Corp. "Combining modular components will lead to faster, more accurate, less expensive devices. This allows the replacement of pneumatic devices with numeric devices and still provides the needed flexibility. Low maintenance is important, too: You don't want to replace a low-maintenance pneumatic device with a numeric device you have to be fussing with all the time." (Illustrated, a clean room-certified linear motion application integrates Bosch Rexroth's Type CKK guide for high travel speeds over long distances.) (For more, click here.)

Integration is another piece of the puzzle. "Automation and flexibility are inherently linked to motion control," states Jeff Faris, product marketing manager/industrial motion control at Rockwell Automation. "Presently, leaders in the motion control field are working to integrate motion control with machine and information control to help customers deploy process improvements more quickly and efficiently." (For more, click here.)

How about compatibility? "One of the main things the industry will ask for is the ability to choose best of class components without a fear of incompatibility," says Jayson Wilkinson, motion control product manager at National Instruments. NI founded a Motion Partnership Program "to help address this problem by determining compatibility with other third party motion components and passing that information on to the customer." The program now includes 10 members, mostly high precision stage manufacturers. (For more, click here.)

Adds Danaher Motion director of product planning & market development Cosmo Mirra: "The nature of electronic motion control compared to more mature forms such as hydraulics and mechanical methods (i.e. CAMs) provides a significant advantage in the area of automation and flexibility (i.e. closed loop systems, and reprogrammability)." (Photo: Danaher's customizable SynqNet lowers maintenance costs by using a real-time synchronous network for motion control.) (For more, click here.)

While distributed control architecture continues to displace centralized controls, there is still a place for the latter. "Local control is important, but many of our customers have found that data still needs to be collected centrally," Martin explains. The key to achieving both is open architecture, higher-level programming languages and protocols, which is why they are becoming more important.

Ruland tells IEN that "motion technology has been one of the most noteworthy recent improvements in PLC capability, especially in the higher growth nano and micro class of controllers," with many of these controllers including "high-speed encoder inputs and pulse train outputs for stepper/servo control at no additional cost."

Simple solutions play a big role in today's motion technology, too. "Equipment quickly burns up in this industry -- it has to be replaced all the time," says Rich Mintz, custom electronics manager at SEW-Eurodrive. In response, the company designed a motor "that doesn't burn out, and encapsulated the conduit box where wires terminate." (For more, click here.)

Phoenix Contact developed a solution for the GALIL motion controller that "saves space, reduces cabling time and is DIN-Rail mountable," according to Phoenix product manager Arnold Offner. The technology is transferable and can reduce design time. (For more, click here.)

Wilkinson cites as another example the "recent addition of simple LEDs [to] help identify hardware errors or when debugging systems indicate when things are plugged in incorrectly."

Ed Lau, motion product marketing manager at Omron Electronics, believes his customers "will be able to improve operational efficiencies and reduce machine commissioning times and maintenance costs more than ever before," in the future. "Single source vendors will provide better experiences for customers who work with multiple product types by creating software tools and communication architectures that encompass the whole system, from HMIs to sensors." (For more, click here.)

Customization will be the driver in DC motors, states Pittman application engineer Mike Lefebvre. "Manufacturers must become increasingly nimble in their processes and responses to customer requirements." He points to a 35mm encoder for Pittman DC motors with a single-platform PC board as an example. (For more, click here.)

Todd R. Berner, national automation sales manager at Ramco Innovations, puts on the customer's hat. "As a potential automation customer I want to purchase a control that has the programming, communication and HMI applications all residing on the controller itself, and I expect it to fully utilize all available hardware solutions available in the PC and embedded control arena." Berner argues that "the guys at the beginning of the PC control revolution only got it half right. Our controls don't have to run on Windows, but they do need to be able to link with Windows applications very easily." (For more, click here.)

NI's Wilkinson contends that the "next major innovations will come from the software." Configuration software now features "simple test panels" that allow engineers to test a motion system "without any programming."

Meanwhile, composite materials will increasingly find their way into new linear motion components, predicts Wayne M. Greer, manager of engineering & project sales at SKF Motion Technologies. "Composite bearing and rail assemblies will inherently be more lightweight and offer unprecedented corrosion resistance for enhanced performance," he continues. "The new lighter-weight composite systems will still have the high load-carrying capacity and durability of the heavier conventional hardened and ground all-steel systems. Other benefits to be realized with composites include reduced friction and reduced maintenance. From a manufacturing perspective systems designed with composite components may be able to be produced at relatively lower costs, for additional economies compared to traditional all-steel designs."

Other R & D hot spots: "Everybody's trying to come up with linear axes with embedded drive, motor and control, to build any multi-axis system," says Martin. Companies also are directing research at "technologies that permit economic means of designing and building motors with higher torque densities," Mirra notes.

Improved cost structure has propelled Ethernet as a preferred communication standard, Ruland adds, "with many PC suppliers including an Ethernet interface on the basic PC motherboard at no additional cost. This means Ethernet controllers and I/O devices can be added to existing Ethernet networks without special hardware."

Some progress has been made in resolving installation problems. Traditionally, motion control installations required specialized knowledge -- and a lot of time. "Most time is typically spent on communications and integration followed by difficulty with overly complex closed loop motion programming techniques," Faris tells IEN. "Much progress has been made in the area of integration of motion with core machine control." This shift has simplified the installation process, since "application code has a common look and feel" and information is handled uniformly.

"As long as you have products that require external software to program and set up you will have these issues ongoing," adds Berner. "This is why an out of box solution that doesn't require software apart from the application that is in the box is the way I see our industry progressing."

Web-based control is gaining some traction, but remains developmental. "Feedback and motor commutation require predictability and reliability that is not yet proven on the Internet," Mirra comments, although the "monitoring and overall system permissive controls could lend themselves" to the web. Berner believes that the Internet's role will center on HMI and data collection.

Legacy issues will always be a sore point. "Some companies insist on 50% re-usability in new capital equipment," observes Martin. "If we're talking about assembly equipment, that may mean that 50% of the conveyor, the aluminum framing for the guards, some of the linear modules or other equipment." Modular design is one answer. Another is a task-focused approach. "You don't have to fit a square peg in a round hole anymore, and you only need to buy the technology you need now," Martin concludes.

Delta's Will Salley believes that "obsolescence is a problem" because of the speed of innovation. "I see very large technical achievements in the area of motion over the next few years. Some systems will become antiquated and therefore left behind." (For more, click here.)