Dedham, Mass.— Many leading U.S. servo drive suppliers are gaining technologies and marketshare through acquisitions, dealing with consolidations and reorganizations, and competing for a growing motion control users population, according to the North America Servo Drive Outlook from Automation Research Corp.

As a result, high performance servo drive technology is available from most suppliers in the current market. Once used as a means of differentiation, comparative performance capabilities and product specifications have reached market parity, adds the report. Likewise, price and performance also continue to improve in intelligence in motion control systems.

In addition, more general motion control suppliers are integrating controllers directly into servo drive stages, and servo drive software is allowing drives to be configured with a wide range of motors from other third party suppliers. Digital signal processor technology has also improved so there are now enough onboard resources to integrate the controller as well as the handle loop closure. The report says these and other developments are attracting more network and software specialists into the field.