Sophisticated technology and control electronics configurations designed into BLDC motor housings can have a favorable impact.

Sizing an AC step motor correctly for an application is critical for many reasons. AC motors tend to run hot when they're loaded too heavily or too lightly.

Motor constant aids in selecting dc motors in motion-control applications. Brushed and brushless dc motors are a good choice in power sensitive or efficiency craving applications.

Properly tuning a motor has been considered a form of black magic by those who haven't had many opportunities to perform the operation—and a painfully learned technique by those who have.

The best way to handle resonance in stepmotors usually involves moving troublesome areas out of harm’s way.

Inherent control simplicity, miniature motors and drives, and higher torque density of stepper systems add up to a viable alternative to servo motion for certain lower-power applications.

Stepper-motor-based systems offer simple, low-cost motion control and about twice the low-speed torque production of an equivalent-size brushless servo motor system. However, stepper systems’ unique ability to control motion in open loop makes them prone to stall under load, substantially reducing usable torque in real applications.

Chuck Lewin's article, "Motoring to Success", concentrates on the "battle for motor selection supremacy" that has been brewing over the last few years. The article starts with an Introduction and then moves on to cover areas entitled, "Give me a motor, any motor", "Positioning motors 101", "The step motor, a self-positioning wonder", "DC brush, the workhorse", "Brushless DC, the high-flying overachiever", "Taking a brief look at ... motor phasing", "taking a brief look at ... motor commutation", "Taking a brief look at ... motor position feedback", and ends with a summary whose conclusion states that there isn't a perfect motor for all applications and that motor selection will affect a number of parameters including the mechanical characteristics of the control application, tolerance for noise, desired speed range and cost.

"Motion Performance Trace" is an article for novices and experienced hands at servo tuning alike. An overview of PID based servo loops is provided, as well as two standard manual tuning methods (these will work well for a large variety of systems). An introduction to auto-tuning is covered and Lewin also looks at advanced servo techniques such as feedforward and frequency domain bi-quad filtering.

"Mathematics of Electronic Motor Control" covers the trends of the last 10 years that have been used to drive the use of complex motor control algorithms. Lewin states that the desire for lower energy consumption and the need for higher performance are the most important of these trends, and that the two are interrelated. Another major trend is the low cost of microprocessors and DSPs (digital signal processors). This article introduces the major techniques used to control multi-phase motors (brushless DC and AC). Step motors are not discussed.

Small, brushless dc (BLDC) motors have recently been introduced by several manufacturers. Just a few years ago expensive servomotors would have been required to do the job that these BLDCs, designed with features and performance benefits that can bring savings to many applications, can do. The challenge for most equipment designers is to determine if the application requires a high performance motor or if a conventional motor can do the job.

This paper discusses a low voltage, high torque, rotary motor which uses piezoelectric principles rather than EM (electromagnetic motor), and also identifies some of the limitations of EM systems. The performance characteristics of the new piezomotor offers advantages in stabilized platform applications where high resolution and other factors are important.

There is a new solution for converting electrical energy into linear motion.  This product offers high force-to-power and force-to weight ration, accelerations to more that 40 g's, and more total efficiency that equivalent sized rotary motor and rack-and-pinion combinations.

One path to improvising motion systems with less space, in order to optimize machine-motor fit, is discussed in this article. Frameless motors are now finding acceptance in other machines that have space constraints.

Motorized linear actators are the driving force behind the award-winning VL5 lights that use 4-step motors each to control color and size of each light beam individually.

High-rise buildings are beginning to rely on tuned dampers to counteract natural frequency sway.  AC servomotors are at the center of one such damper type.

Before selecting the right motor for your motion control service, you must first decide on the motor type.  To assist you in this endeavor, you will need to answer five simple questions.

To help resolve equipment downtimes, many motor manufacturers use washdown-duty motors.  These motors have become well-entrenched and popular and their workload is ever increasing.

Planetary gearheads are emerging as a solution for servomotor applications that need precision speed reducers to ensure smooth and accurate operation as well as high reduction ratios.

A Permanent Magnet DC (PMDC) motor could be the solution when high starting/ acceleration torque, predictable motor speed properties, compact size and energy efficiency are needed.