In an age in which many companies outsource engineering expertise even as they slash time-to-market and pursue global markets, designers face increasing responsibility. The motion sector is no exception. "As profit margins become thinner, a machine must be less complicated, more economical to manufacture and be supported anywhere in the world," says Jeff Nestel-Patt, director of marketing at Danaher Motion. Components must meet a myriad of global specs, with off-the-shelf availability.
"And component and sub-system suppliers are adapting to this new market reality," Nestel-Patt continues. "Gone are the days when a machine characteristic has to be designed around the limitation of a single component. Today, if you want your product designed into the next generation machine, your components had better offer the flexibility, availability and performance attributes that exactly conform to the machine specification. And they need to work as effectively in the United States at 60 Hz as they do in Italy at 50 Hz." (Danaher Motion''s Kollmorgen Series S200 brushless servo drives, pictured here, maximize throughput via 800 Hz velocity loop bandwidth.) (For more, click here.)
Danielle Collins, product manager for linear motion systems at Bosch Rexroth Corp/Linear Motion and Assembly Technologies, adds "decreased maintenance and increased uptime" along with JIT as user priorities. "This rush sometimes leads to improperly specified machinery -- which in itself can lead to costly delays, equipment with too few or too many capabilities, and lost productivity," Collins notes. (For more, click here.)
Concerns about power quality will continue to grow. "In fact, investments in transmission assets have been in a steady decline for many years, undermining their reliability," according to Robert Glickman of ABB Inc''s Electrical Systems Consulting Group, "and any drop in supply reliability is surely a decrease in power quality." Utility system faults often lead to voltage sag. Tom Bernhardt, principal engineer at ABB''s long voltage drives business unit, says that "ac drives have considerable capability to ride through a voltage sag, because they store energy on their dc bus capacitors and can make use of the energy stored in the load''s inertia." (For more, click here.)
Increasingly Complex Systems
The increased complexity of motion control systems "has raised the bar on expectations of system components," adds Tarek Bugaighis, director, business development for SKF''s medical and semiconductor businesses. "Every component must integrate easily and contribute reliably to overall system performance. Suppliers must be able to demonstrate expertise about individual components, their design and technology, and their interconnected relationships in delivering effective motion control solutions." (For more, click here.)
In today''s hypercompetitive climate, "it''s no longer sufficient for manufacturers to be the best at developing quality motion control products, innovative technology, and customized application solutions," cautions John S. Wolfe, sales and marketing manager at PennEngineering Motion Technologies. "The marketplace further seeks those who can demonstrate worldwide JIT delivery capabilities with all the inherent customer benefits." Manufacturers unable to respond "lose ground to the competition," Wolfe observes.
"One of the most important issues in motion control is a move toward digital interfaces (replace +/-10 V) to drives and I/O from host/controller," notes Marshall Matheson, director/marcom at Motion Engineering Inc. "There is a virtual Ethernet battle at least on the marketing front. Firewire has lost some marcom traction over the last year, and SERCOS 100BaseT specification is far off from implementation." (For more, click here.)
Motion is no longer constrained by the efficiency and machine sizing limits of simple algorithms, according to Texas Instruments. "Since DSP controllers run the control law in a fraction of the time and cycles it takes a simple microprocessor to do so, they can dedicate cycles to running other software," comments Kedar Godbole, motor control strategist for digital motor applications at TI''s Semiconductor Group. "Designers are using powerful math engines to run computer intensive algorithms." (For more, click here.)
More sophisticated algorithms drive off-highway motion control, too. HED Inc national sales/marketing manager Jimi Hall explains: "Safety interlock algorithms programmed into the [CAN] system now enable the equipment to limit its operation when the microprocessor decides the equipment is working outside of its limitations or as sequences are occurring that can lead to risk for the operator. . . .Designers can provide a network of these controller modules to coordinate the many functions present on very large machines, or use just a single box when necessary. Even a small mini-dozer using a single-board controller can prevent its scraper from operating or the ignition from sparking if the operator is not safely sitting in the driver''s seat." (For more, click here.)
Meanwhile, "Users can expect continued increases in performance, product size reduction, feedback technology and overall system integration," predicts Brian Lieser, marketing manager/Kinetix Motion Control at Rockwell Automation. "System and information level software and firmware innovation will be at the heart of the enhancements for motion control. These advances will make motion control integrate seamlessly with machine control and ensure that application engineering is applied to process development and improvement, not ''black box'' startup. Software and firmware innovation will also deliver more advanced machine-tolerant actuators that deal effectively with real world ''mechatronics.''" (Rockwell Automation''s A-B Kinetix 6000 servo drive, shown, saves space in motion applications.) (For more, click here.)
Software Innovations
Oriental Motor USA Corp engineering manager Nick Johantgen believes that "more powerful and flexible software will become imbedded into motion products that will allow the user to spend less time designing, tuning, and optimizing their motion systems on their machines." Future software may allow components to "determine motion optimal profiles torque utilization with minimal effort from the user. The user may only need to tell the system how far to move, and the device will do the rest of the work." Web applications will grow, with devices "upgraded, reconfigured, and monitored remotely," according to Johantgen. (For more, click here.)
"Great progress has been made to meet the demands of the ever-changing serial communication technology," notes Stephen Huang, director of ADLINK Technology Inc''s automation product segment. "For example, Ethernet resolves traditional servo driver issues." Despite such advances, "there is no set standard when connecting to a single motion controller system for both hardware and protocol," Huang states. (For more, click here.)
Maxon Precision Motors believes brushless motors will continue to expand market share. "With firmware-based control systems, customization becomes more viable for small quantity and cost sensitive applications," Maxon vp electronics sales and marketing Michael D. Rogen explains, pointing to positions controllers "that are not much bigger than a 9 V battery." (For more, click here.) Trio Motion Technology North American sales manager Edward D. Novak sees innovations in "low-power processors and FLASH programmable gate arrays." Recent advances "allow multiple hardware variations on the same physical board." (For more, click here.)
And according to John Garbarino, valve product manager at Parker Hannifin''s Pneumatic Div, "end users will be able to specify fully featured pneumatic valves, in all flow ranges, which are dimensionally interchangeable among all pneumatic valve manufacturers. End users will benefit by having products in their facilities which are globally available and supported while being interchangeable among all manufacturers." (For more, click here.)
Investment dollars are pouring into R & D and commercial developments in networking, says Lieser. "The common theme is a convergence around an Ethernet- based motion networking system. Another R & D hotspot in motion control is the actuator and related software control. Traditional motor plus transmission configuration has led to performance limitations as closed loop control meets compliance." Lieser expects improved cost and performance from "advances in actuator, direct drive, software modeling, and embedded control."
R & D is also focused on "materials that will result in faster speeds, higher load capacities and lower maintenance for mechanical components; and on bundling these technologies in intelligent ways," Collins comments.
Overcoming Obstacles to Wireless
Obstacles to wireless applications can be overcome in some applications, according to Joe Biondo, marketing manager at Bosch Rexroth Corp/Electric Drives and Controls. "Wireless applications in industrial automation are most likely in programming devices," he says. Machine operation is a different story, because the "risks associated with transmitting mission-critical information in this manner are not likely to pass muster with machine safety requirements. Typically, although it is technically possible to transmit information safely, the perceived risk will cause slow adoption of the technology. With programming, the controller can make sure that the wireless transmission is valid; while this is possible with machine operation as well, the perceived risk is much greater." (For more, click here.)
Bosch Rexroth robotics product manager Jeff Parker adds, "Tele-maintenance could and does work in some scenarios. Whether it can be assured depends on the network configuration. If effective, this type of added value can increase the appeal of the product to the end user and separate the product from the competition."
OMS Motion''s Bill Swanson argues that preventing software and debugging issues can "never happen -- there are always bugs," although "beta testing helps." The software heart of CAN systems replaces "many of the functions performed by electrical hardware components," Hall says, reducing the "time devoted to QA/QC." Godbole notes, "Extremely efficient C compliers allow developers to create object code nearly as compact as native assembly, yielding excellent real-time performance." More widespread adoption of reusable code has also helped ease setup, Biondo adds.
Open standards have taken hold in the motion sector, allowing "machine builders and users to design using the best components, without compromising system functionality," continues Biondo, citing as an example the OMAC for Packaging Workgroup''s PackProfile.
Does motion technology play a part in collaborative manufacturing? "As motion control becomes more advanced, its role in collaborative manufacturing becomes more integral," Biondo states. "The ability of an intelligent digital servo drive to become an intelligent sensor is a great example: since the drive measures several axis characteristics (like velocity, torque, and position), this data can be used to predict the wear patterns of bearings, for example."