Electric Servo Motors Product Research (January 2008)

Research was undertaken to gain a better understanding of Control Engineering subscribers’ applications and needs regarding electric servo motors.

By Control Engineering Staff January 23, 2008

Research was undertaken to gain a better understanding of Control Engineering subscribers’ applications and needs regarding electric servo motors.

Executive Summary

• Among those who specify, recommend, or buy Electric Servo Motors, 75% do so for in-plant requirements, while 46% do this for OEM needs.
• Almost half of respondents mentioned motion control as the primary application for electric servo motors.
• Respondents’ electric servo motor usage depends heavily on the application. However, most are applied for new applications.
• A little over half of respondents mentioned brushless electric servo motors as their preferred type. Brushless ac was mentioned by 47% of respondents. The most preferred purchase method is to match the motor and drive together.
• 71% of respondents currently use electric servo motors with power/size ratings of up to 1 kW. Increased usage is most noticeable between the 1– 20 kW ratings. Seventy-six percent of respondents require electric servo motor speed capabilities of 3,000 rpm or less.
• Pricing, standard sizes, type of mounting and EMI/RFI protection emerged as the key functional selection criteria when selecting features for electric servo motors. Software for setup/tuning, high torque at low speed, and high output torque are the key performance features when evaluating electric servo motors.
• Forty percent of respondents currently use linear servo motors, and 22% plan to use them in the next year.
• Less than half of the respondents have their servo motors in a networked arrangement. Among those respondents who have servo motors in a networked arrangement, EtherNet/IP and SERCOS are the most popular communication network with 49% saying they use each.
• Fifty-one percent of respondents are not using, nor plan to use, servo motors that have the control, drive, and feedback all packaged into the motor housing.
• 41% of respondents purchased electric servo motors from Rockwell Automation / Allen-Bradley in the past year. Over one-quarter of respondents purchased servo motors from Baldor Electric.
• 38% of respondents purchased less than 10 servo motors in the last year. 26% of respondents purchased 50 or more units. 72% of respondents spent more than $15,000 on servo motors in the past year.

 

Electric Servo Motors Product Research 2008