Brushless micro drive range expanded

Maxon Motor's new 10 and 13mm brushless DC micro drives meet the need for increasingly small motors.

Maxon Motor has added three extra motors to its range of brushless (electronically commutated) DC micro drives.

The new 10 and 13mm diameter units - the latter available in two different lengths to suit different shapes of equipment - expand customer choice within a crucial part of the size spectrum.

Keith Ellenden, CEO of Maxon Motor UK, explains: "The demand for EC (electronically commutated) micro motors is growing all the time - while the spaces in which designers want to fit them are becoming smaller".

"Our EC range already goes from 60mm right down to 6mm, but for many applications the very smallest units are simply not powerful enough".

"At 10 and 13mm we can supply plenty of power without increasing the motor's dimensions too much".

Maxon's EC 10 gives an output of 8W and reaches a maximum permissible speed of 80,000 rev/minute; the short version of the EC 13 has an assigned power rating of 6W, while the longer one offers 12W, and both will deliver a maximum permissible speed of 50,000 rev/minute.

To generate the highest possible torque in the tightest of spaces Maxon uses NdFeB magnetic material in the rotors.

To maximise precision and load capacity, the motors are pre-loaded with ball bearings.

Each of Maxon's EC motors can be ordered with or without Hall sensors.

Their tried and tested flexprint connectors allow easy and secure connection to any of Maxon's controllers, creating intelligent, highly dynamic systems for precise speed or positional control.

If lower speeds but higher torques are required, each motor can be combined with a choice of appropriate and totally compatible planetary Maxon gearheads, using Maxon's modular system.

The resulting combination of motor and gearhead is also remarkably compact.

The new motors are well matched to a diversity of applications.

One example is in seismic instruments designed to sense and respond to the slightest earth movements.

As well as instrumentation, textile processing machinery, fitting machines and portable hand tools, there is potential for these motors in the field of medical technology.

A Maxon EC motor has, for example, been used to position the 'leaves' that form the iris of a radiation treatment machine.

A hundred or more of these leaves are positioned perfectly, according to the exact shape of the malignant growth, so that the cancer is irradiated while the surrounding healthy tissue is protected.

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