Mechatronics Training

If mechatronics wasn’t difficult enough to define (concisely), try and get a degree in it! Interestingly, with the increased attention that mechatronics is receiving around the globe there are established degree programs in Europe and Australia. Some schools in the US are picking up on the trend. The electric car races, Darpa Challenge and battling robot competitions, with some very hefty cash prizes, have stimulated interest from thousands of participants and spectators alike.

The latest innovation is the partnering of schools, automation equipment suppliers and funding from the Department of Labor. DOL (Department of Labor) estimates that 10 million technical factory jobs could go unfilled by the year 2020 without an aggressive effort to train students and teachers. The assessment of American labor’s capability to deal with emerging technology trends on the factory floor has lead DOL to contribute millions of dollars in cooperation with schools and equipment companies to make state-of-the-art training available on a large scale. Read more

Actuators

Another area of Mechatronics that is very confusing is the area of actuators. The problem is that you can buy actuators that are assemblies of several components, or you can buy the components, and they’re all called actuators. This is traditionally an ambiguous area of mechatronics and I will try to add a little definition to help clarify things a bit.

An actuator assembly is made up of 5 different technologies integrated into a package. These 5 are;

• motive power source
• means of transmission
• bearing or guidance
• frame or support structure
• position feedback (in most cases) Read more

Common Terms are Not So Common

I have worked around electric motors for a long time. It still blows my mind that we can’t seem to settle on common terms and definitions of things we work with on a daily basis. When is a motor AC Synchronous or DC Brushless? They are identical. Same motor.

So you have to start from the beginning of the motor family tree and work your way through it. What makes a motor AC versus DC. The only definition I know of that makes any sense is this:

An AC motor has only one magnetic field, in the stator, and induces a second magnetic field through induction, into the rotor. The rotor becomes magnetized and follows the circulating magnetic field in the stator by passive attraction. This is why most AC motors are referred to as induction motors, because the magnetic polarity in the rotor is induces. AC motors as a result are constant speed machine based on the frequency of the electrical excitation. Since that’s mostly 60 hertz in the USA, its usually some multiple of 60, most commonly 1800 RPM (minus some rotor slip). AC machines require an inverter to change AC into DC and then DC into variable frequency AC in order to achieve variable speed performance. Due to decreasing costs for the AC motor and recent cost breakthroughs in inverter technology, AC variable speed is the dominant solution. Read more

Energy and Control

Looks like I was mistaken about one thing recently, and its probably not the only thing. The new clothes washer we got to replace our failing machine does not use a switched reluctance drive. Its an intelligent inverter drive with a standard AC motor.

As somewhat of a technology freak, this comes as quite a surprise. I had been involved in a lot of advanced motor R&D during the late 1990’s. Switched reluctance was touted as the next big thing in motor technology. In truth, its a permanent magnet machine that uses high energy magnets (neodymium iron boron), which are expensive. So in the effort to advance technology, we never escape the cost impact.

Where cost is not constrained, anything is possible. Men on the moon, robots on Mars, telescopes in space that see the edge of the universe. Superconducting electromagnets that contain the power the of sun, particle accelerators that approach the speed of light. Almost anything you can think of. Read more

Motor Industry and the New Year

Hope everyone had a great holiday and a successful year in 2007.

I was reviewing the Department of Commerce figures for electric motors. Hey, its just something I do.

A few years ago when I was hired to help a young high tech motor company in Denver understand the marketplace, we started with the Department of Commerce data for electric motors and generators. We studied the data and went into an interesting exercise in analyzing the market. At that time the US produced approximately $12B in electric motors. That includes all the industrial and high tech stuff, as well as starter motors on cars, alternators, generators and fractional horsepower fans you find around the house. Big numbers, lots of parts. Read more