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Micro-stepping drives increase machine performance

An Inmoco product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jul 6, 2005

Pacific Scientific P7000 Series micro-stepping drives offer the means to significantly increase machine performance, without expensive redesign of machine control architectures.

Inmoco's introduction of the Pacific Scientific P7000 Series micro-stepping drives from Danaher Motion users provides OEMs and users with the means to significantly increase machine performance, without expensive redesign of machine control architectures.

Offering true, servo-like performance at lower cost than conventional servo drives, and industry-standard communications, the P7000 units have advanced features that make them the ideal solution for single or multi-axis applications requiring high-speed performance or low-speed smoothness The P7000 is the only micro-stepping drive on the market to offer open loop stall detect (OLSDT), a feature that allows detection of a stalled motor without using encoder or resolver feedback.

It can also detect motor position shifts while at rest.

In addition, the drives use Multi-Stepping positioning to convert full-step indexing commands into smooth micro-stepping resolution, providing 25,600-micro-step output for smooth system performance.

Complementing the P7000's multi-stepping performance are Dynamic Smoothing, a feature that "rounds the edges" of move profiles to minimise machine jolts during acceleration; and Xtreme Smoothness, which eliminates the motor's natural resonance speeds and provides more usable torque throughout the speed range.

Also helping to optimise the P7000's performance is an antiresonance feature; at 7.2deg the largest range in the industry.

This ensures optimum torque and nulls midrange instability.

In addition to its many positive operational qualities, the P7000 offers the OEM and user extensive facilities to aid machine integration.

These include a programmable jog function with dual speed settings, and nine programmable inputs, including jog+, jog-, jog speed, EOT+, EOT-, move select, soft reset, start move, start/stop pulse and stop move, for basic motion control.

All the inputs - and outputs - are user configurable to provide active-low operation at 5V DC or active-high operation at 24V DC.

The P7000 is supported by a motion node option that allows simple indexing of up to 63 moves; this adds enhanced indexing capabilities at significant savings when compared with the cost of a standard indexer.

In addition, because the motion node supports Modbus RTU, with CANopen and DeviceNet network protocols as future options, users can connect to industry-standard networks and add positioning capability at a fraction of the cost of using a fully programmable controller.

Extremely compact to meet tight installation constraints, the P7000 is designed for use with Pacific Scientific T, N, or K Series stepper motors, the combination providing users with a fully optimised stepper solution, one which delivers the highest torques for use in single- or multi-axis applications requiring high-speed performance or low-speed smoothness.