Emerging Trends in Motion Control and Automation Hardware

Emerging Trends in Motion Control and Automation Hardware

Manufacturing Technology Insights | Thursday, September 01, 2022

A motion control system is inherently adaptable, not only to changing market demands but also to changing economic and environmental conditions.

FREMONT, CA: People live in a continuously evolving world, which has never been more evident than over the past 18 months. Workplace conditions, product demand, supply chains, and labor force composition change. Motion control is evolving to solve these concerns by developing new or improved technologies or expanding existing ones beyond the early adopter market. The most effective method for analyzing some of these trends is to divide the industry into two categories:

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EMBEDDED MOTION

Embedded motion involves the integration of motors, actuators, drive electronics, and even controls into a single module. Applications include implanted medical devices, ultracompact apparatus like DNA sequencers, and satellites, for which it is essential to minimize size and weight. For many of these applications, size, weight, and power consumption (SWaP) is the magic phrase. Companies are approaching the problem from various perspectives to mitigate these factors.

Miniaturization: The embedded motion market is steadily moving toward miniaturization and increased functionality. Rethinking the device architecture is imperative to achieving this goal. For instance, can redundant circuitry be eliminated? Typically, mobile equipment operates on DC power, eliminating the requirement for bus capacitors and rectifiers. The work may concentrate on re-segmenting systems or discovering a way to employ a single subassembly to deliver functions that previously required two or three.

The outcome is a smaller and lighter gadget with fewer components. There are fewer elements to certify (which is advantageous for the medical and aerospace industries) and fewer elements to fail. The disadvantage, devices can be harder to manufacture. Typically, they require stacked structures and the patterning of extremely thin conductors and insulators. The tolerances for pick-and-place assembly must be in the micron range. However, businesses are responding to these difficulties with highly successful solutions.

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INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION

Industrial automation refers to conventional automation, including production equipment and facilities such as dock cranes. Industrial automation typically involves larger motors, greater loads, more powerful drives, and more intricate controls. Typically, cost-conscious and utilize more turnkey solutions. Trends in the industry address these challenges.

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Lower-Cost Absolute Encoders: In the industrial world, incremental encoders have formed the backbone. They are simple and inexpensive, but they have one drawback: they must be repositioned at startup or after a power outage. Rehoming after a defect is, at best, time-consuming. It can, at worst, affect product quality or cause equipment damage. Absolute encoders ensure positional accuracy throughout power outages and restarts. Total feedback can make a difference for applications focusing on OEE, whether faster throughput or a larger volume of quality output.

The cost has been one of the most significant obstacles to absolute encoders, relegating them to high-performance applications. This circumstance has been altering. Historically, an absolute encoder could be up to ten times more expensive than an incremental encoder. Today, this price disparity is roughly double or perhaps one-half as significant. Even low-priced devices can benefit from price reductions if price cuts continue.

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