Did You Know?

Brian Mason, Regional Sales Engineer – Southwest

Applied Motion Products is like an iceberg. At the tip, you know them to be a renowned manufacturer of high-precision, cost-effective motion control products. Below the surface however is where the real action is! Advanced algorithms such as step smoothing filters, harmonic waveform smoothing and electronic damping propel our technology ahead of the curve. Let’s dive into these technology characteristics with competitor data analysis to showcase why ours is better.

Many of our stepper and servo drives have I/O available for connecting to external devices such as control signals, incremental encoders, limit switches, proximity or photoelectric sensors, PLC I/O, lamps, and other devices. The drives come with digital inputs, digital outputs, and single-ended analog inputs (analog inputs can be wired together as 1 differential analog input).

A question often asked is this: which is better, servo or stepper? Perhaps a more precise question is: for which applications are servos the best choice and for which are steppers the best choice? As with many things, the answer is not always simple and there are many factors to consider. The common answer is: servos are better for high speed applications and steppers are better for low speed.

Applied Motion Products’ Integrated step motor drives offer an ideal motion control solution for an ever increasing variety of 3D printers. 3D printer technology is being applied to an amazing number of applications including: Fabrication of aircraft parts, personal items including shoes, medical devices, carbon fiber structures and even biological systems. 3D printing will revolutionize the manufacturing industry, enabling developments that previously could not be imagined.

Q Programmer is a very versatile programming platform where motion is involved. Incremental positioning, absolute positioning, encoder following, pulse and direction, analog velocity, multi-segment moves and torque control are some of these motion modes. However, machines are becoming more sophisticated, and often require the motion controller to have PLC logic capabilities as well as motion capability.

The STM24 and ST Series are Modbus compatible and ready to plug and play with HMI’s and PLC’s.

In the third part of our Industrial Networking focus articles, we will take a look at how Applied Motion products can be easily integrated into an existing machine or new machine design using the EtherNet/IP protocol. First, let’s take a look at the products that have the EtherNet/IP networking capability.

Did you know that Applied Motion Products supports a wide range of Industrial Networks? Manufacturers and OEMs have recognized the production gains that can be realized from increased data communication and machine control by using industrial networks. The number of industrial networks, the number of network nodes, and the capabilities provided by industrial networks have increased dramatically over the last decade.

Applied Motion Products offers connectivity to EtherNet/IP, CANopen, Modbus RTU, and RS-232 and 485 serial networks for our stepper and servo products.