Frequently Asked Questions
System Configuration
No technical limit on the number of supported Stators. No limit on the number of Movers, as long as the Movers can geometrically fit inside the Stator working area.
All Stators should be aligned with their neighbor Stators; other than that, there is no limit.
Customers will be provided a template to make their own application-specific mounting plate. The template will match the four M8 threaded holes in the Stator bottom side. In each Stator, one 4 mm pin hole and one 4-mm wide slot are used for alignment on the mounting plate.
Our Movers come with standard tooling mount including threaded holes and dowel pin holes. We can provide Movers in customer specified tooling mount as well.
Features and Performance
The built-in position sensors provide absolute positions for each Mover instantly after system power up. No homing or initialization process is needed.
Yes. Each Mover can go along an arbitrary path, specified by external position setpoint stream, pre-configured trajectory, or motion commands.
Mover repeatability is less than 5 micron in all directions. Movers with less than 1 micron repeatability are also available.
Our Stator built-in sensors not only measure 6-axis position, but also detect unique “fingerprint” on each Mover right after system power up. With absolute ID feature, each Mover is assigned a unique and consistent ID, in despite of power cycles.
Operation
Movers are propelled by controllable three-dimensional magnetic fields generated from a two-dimensional coil matrix. The resulting forces are used to control the position of the Movers in X, Y, Z and in Rx, Ry, Rz, namely the rotary motion around X, Y, Z, respectively.
Planar motor systems support all major industry standard communication interface, such as Ethernet, Wi-fi, EtherNet/IP, EtherCAT, Profinet, Discrete IO, Serial. We support all control platform whenever possible. Our customers can use the controller hardware/software that they are most comfortable with, and there is no need to learn or adapt to a new programming environment.
No additional drives are required. All drive electronics are integrated inside Stator modules.
Our system automatically manages collision avoidance without user intervention.
Based on our previous experience of system commissioning in America, Asia, Europe, typically our customers can master the control/operation of our Planar Motor Systems in a few hours.
Each Stator consumes about 6W at standby; each Mover M3-06 may consume about 13~20W at stationary 1-mm levitation without load and up to 100W momentarily at high acceleration with payload.
The Stators are powered with low voltage DC. The standard supply voltage is 48V DC; on request, we can supply low-voltage version Stators using 24V DC.
Planar motor system are well suited for most industrial environments: from harsh/dirty environments to ultra-clean (food, pharmaceutical, aseptic, vacuum) environments. Planar Motor systems cannot operate in an environment with an abundance of ferrous debris, as ferrous particles will be attached to the Mover magnet.
Reliability and Maintenance
No maintenance requirement, no periodic lubrication, no tightening/alignment effort. Truly maintenance free.
Internally, we tested our evaluation system for over 30,000 hours without any failure.
303/304/316L stainless steel, aluminum, plastic, glass.
Planar motors are invented, designed, and manufactured in Vancouver, Canada.
Mover design ensures magnetic field is confined inside the gap below. Minimum leakage from Mover top and side surfaces.
Other
Packaging, assembly, inspection, testing, semiconductor, and various other automated procedures in the factory.
No. Each Mover’s are precisely controlled in 6 axis. An off-center payload won’t affect the X/Y/Z and pitch/raw/roll position at all.
Passive cooling by natural convection is usually sufficient. Each Stator is equipped with push-to-connect fittings. In applications requiring better temperature management or higher acceleration/payload, air or water can be optionally pumped through heat exchange channels inside Stators.