Drive Mechanism

Introduction to drives
Why do we need drives Requirement of the equipment
• Production • Should be Automatic in nature
• Quality Control • Should be very precise.
• Packaging • Could generate relative
motion
Introduction to drives
 Basic function: to provide automatic and precise motion
control to its elements such work table, tool spindle etc.
 A drive system of a typical mechatronics based system (CNC
machine tool) consists of drive motors and ball lead- screws
 Control unit actuates the drive motors -> rotate the ball lead-
screws -> position the machine table or cause rotation of the
spindle
Power drives
 Drives used in an automated system may be of
electrical, hydraulic and pneumatic type
 Electrical drives
 These are direct current (DC) or alternating current (AC)

motors / stepper motors / servo motors

 They are small in size and are easy to control
Hydraulic drives
 Use of hydraulic fluid - petroleum based oil
 These drives have large power to size ratio
 Step-less motion with good accuracy
 Difficult to maintain and are bulky
 Structural elements need special treatment to protect them
against corrosion
Pneumatic drives
 Use air/gas as working medium
 Air is abundant and fire proof
 Equipment are simple in construction and are cheaper
 However these drives generate low power, have less
positioning accuracy and are noisy
Drives used in a typical automatic
system: CNC machine tool
 Computer numerical control (CNC) Turning Centre
 Spindle drives : provide angular motion to the workpiece
The requirements of an ideal feed drive
 Constant torque characteristics to overcome friction and cutting
forces
 The drive speed should be extremely variable with a speed range of
about 1: 20000
 The feed motor must run smoothly
 The drive should have extremely small positioning resolution (1- 2 µm)
 High torque to weight ratio
 Low rotor inertia
Electrical Drives

Advantages Limitations
 Extensive range of speed,  Access to power
power and torque.  Initial cost
 No requirement of refuel  May have noise pollution
 Green, environment friendly
 Stable speed
Electric drives

Electric
Motors

AC Motors DC Motors

Synchronous Induction Brushed Brushless

Motors Motors Motors Motors
Brush type DC motor
 an armature coil, slip rings divided into two parts, a pair of
brushes and horse shoes electromagnet
 has two field poles namely a north pole and a south pole
 The magnetic lines from north to south
 The coil is wound around a soft iron core and is placed in between
the magnet poles.
 Electromagnets receive electricity from an outside power
source.
 Coil ends are connected to split rings.
 Carbon brushes are in contact with the split rings.
 Brushes are connected to a DC source.
 Split rings rotate with the coil while the brushes remain
stationary.
Brush type DC motor
 Advantages
• The design of the brushed DC motor is quite simple

• Controlling the speed of a Brush DC Motor is easy

• Very cost effective

 Disadvantages
• High maintenance: the brushes wear off with usage

• Performance decreases with dust particles

• Less reliable in control at lower speeds

Brushless electric motor
 Computers and power transistors
 Permanent magnet on rotor and
Electromagnets are stator
 Energizing in sequential manner using
transistors
 Hall effect sensors for rotor position
location
Brushless electric motors
 More precise : computer control
 More efficient
 No sparking
 Less electrical noise
 No brushes to wear out
 Electromagnets on the stator: easy to cool
 Higher initial cost
 Complex design
AC motors
 Convert AC current into the rotation of a mechanical
element (mechanical energy)
 As in the case of DC motor, a current is passed through the coil,
generating a torque on the coil.
 A stator and a rotor.
 Armature of rotor is a magnet unlike DC motors
 Stator is formed by electromagnets similar to DC motors.
AC motors
 The main limitation of AC motors over DC
motors is that speed is more difficult to
control in AC motors.
 To overcome this limitation, AC motors are
equipped with variable frequency drives but
the improved speed control comes together
with a reduced power quality.
Servo Motors
 Servo motors are special electromechanical
devices that produce precise degree of rotation.
 Servo motors are called control motors as they
are involved in controlling a mechanical system.
 The servo motors are used in a closed loop
system.
 Servo motors provide accurate speed, torque and
have ability of direction control.
 In many servo systems, both velocity and position
are monitored.
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 Working principle of Servomotor and
drive
1. The controller sends a signal to the servo drive.
2. The servo drive amplifies the signal and sends it to the motor.
3. The motor converts the electrical energy into mechanical
energy and rotates the shaft.
4. The encoder measures the position of the motor shaft.
5. The controller compares the measured position to the desired
position.
6. If the measured position is not equal to the desired position,
the controller sends a new signal to the servo drive.
7. The servo drive amplifies the new signal and sends it to the
motor.
8. The motor rotates the shaft again until the measured position is
equal to the desired position.
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Servo Drive
• A servo drive is a device that powers and controls a servomotor. It amplifies the signal from
the controller and sends it to the motor. It also provides feedback from the motor to the
controller.
• The servo drive typically has the following components:
 The amplifier: The amplifier amplifies the signal from the controller and sends it to the
motor.
 The power supply: The power supply provides the electrical power to the amplifier and
the motor.
 The control circuit: The feedback circuit provides feedback from the motor to the
controller.

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Servo Motors
Advantages Disadvantages
 Provides high intermittent torque,
 More expensive
and high speeds.
 Work well for velocity control.
 Require tuning of control
 Quite in operation.
loop parameters

 Smoother rotation at lower speeds.

Stepper Motor
• The stepper motor is an actuator which translates electrical pulses
into precise, equally spaced, angular movements of the rotor in the
form of steps.
• Types:
• Variable Reluctance (VR)
• Permanent Magnet (PM)
• Hybrid
• Applications:
• CNC machines
• Printers
• Positioning systems in robotics
• Example:
• Stepper motors driving lead screws in CNC machine tables.
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Stepper Motor
 The stepper motor is known by its property to convert
a train of input pulses (typically square wave pulses)
into a precisely defined increment in the shaft
position.
 Each pulse moves the shaft through a fixed angle.
 Multiple toothed electromagnets arranged around a
central gear-shaped piece of iron.
 The electromagnets are energized by an external
driver circuit or a microcontroller.
Stepper Motor
 To make the motor shaft turn, first one electromagnet is given power,
magnetically attracts the gear’s teeth.

 When the gear’s teeth are aligned to the first electromagnet, they are slightly
offset from the next electromagnet.

 This means that when the next electromagnet is turned on and the first is
turned off, the gear rotates slightly to align with the next one.

 From there the process is repeated. Each of those rotations is called “step”, with
an integer number of steps making a full rotation.
Stepper Motor

Advantages Disadvantages
• Low cost
• Low torque capacity to DC motors.
• Ruggedness
• Limited speed.
• Simplicity of construction
• Low maintenance • Vibration and noise occur when
• Less likely to stall and slip running at high speed.
• Will work n any environment
• Excellent start-stop and reversing
responses
Stepper motor calculations
• CNC uses a stepper motor that rotate the lead screw. A stepper motor is
driven by series of electrical pulses generated by MCU
• For each pulse the motor rotates a fraction of revolution called step angle.
Its is given by
360
𝛼= (Degrees/pluses)
𝑛𝑠
• Where, 𝑛𝑠 = number of step angles for the motor (an integer)
• If 𝑛𝑝 is the pulses received by the motor then angle through which the
motor
𝐴 𝑚 = 𝑛𝑝 ∗ 𝛼
Stepper motor calculations
• Lead screw is connected to the motor shaft through a gear box.
• Angle of the lead screw rotation taking the gear ratio int into account is
given by
𝐴𝑚
𝐴= = 𝑛𝑝 ∗ 𝛼/𝑟𝑔
𝑟𝑔
𝑟𝑔 = 𝐺𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜 = 𝐴𝑚 /𝐴
= 𝑁𝑚 /𝑁
• Nm = RPM of motor, N = RPM of lead screw
• A: Angle of rotation (𝐴𝑚 /𝑟𝑔 ), p= Lead screw pitch
• The linear movement of worktable is given by:
𝑥 = 𝑝𝐴/360(mm)
Stepper motor calculations
• Total number of pulses required to achieve a specified x-position increment is
calculated by:
360 ∗ 𝑟𝑔 ∗ 𝑥 𝑛𝑠 ∗ 𝑥 ∗ 𝑟𝑔
𝑛𝑝 = =
𝑝∗𝛼 𝑝
• Where ns= 360/𝛼
• Control pulses are transmitted from pulse generator at a certain frequency which
drives the work table at the corresponding velocity.
• The rotational speed of lead screw depends on the frequency of the pulse train
60 ∗ 𝑓𝑝
𝑁=
𝑛𝑠 ∗ 𝑟𝑔
• N= RPM of lead screw, fp = frequency of the pulse train (Hz)
Stepper motor calculations
• The table travel speed in the direction of lead screw axis is determined by:
𝑉𝑡 = 𝑓𝑟 = 𝑁 ∗ 𝑝

Where 𝑉𝑡 = table travel speed (mm/min)

𝑓𝑟 = table feed rate (mm/min)

• The required pulse train frequency to drive the table at a specified linear travel rate

𝑓𝑟 ∗𝑛𝑠 ∗𝑟𝑔
𝑓𝑝 =
60∗𝑝
Numerical Problem
1. Pitch 3mm. Gear ratio = 1. Step angle 200
A) How closely position of the table can be controlled
B) Frequency of the pulse train and corresponding rotational speed of the stepping
motor in order to drive the table at a travel rate of 100mm/min?

2. Pitch= 6 mm, gear ratio 5:1, 𝑛𝑠 = 48, distance (x)= 250 mm,
velocity (fr)= 500 mm/min
A) calculate the number of pulses (𝑛𝑝 )
B) motor speed (Nm) and pulse rate (𝑓𝑝 ) to achieve desired velocity.
Stepper motors
 Types of stepper motors:
 Permanent Magnet
 Employ permanent magnet
 Low speed, relatively high torque
 Variable Reluctance
 Does not have permanent magnet
 Low torque
 Variable Reluctance Stepper Motor
 The cylindrical rotor is made of soft steel
and has four poles
 It has four rotor teeth, 90⁰ apart and six
stator poles, 60⁰ apart.
 Electromagnetic field is produced by
activating the stator coils in sequence. It
attracts the metal rotor (because of low
reluctance).
 When the windings are energized in a
reoccurring sequence of 1, 3, 2, and so on,
the motor will rotate in a 30⁰ step angle.
[Link]
 Permanent magnet (PM) stepper motor
 The rotor is a permanent magnet.
 Unlike the other stepping motors,
the PM motor rotor has no teeth
and is designed to be magnetized
at a right angle to its axis. A
simple, 90⁰ PM motor with four
phases (A-D).

[Link]
 Permanent magnet (PM) stepper motor
 Applying current to each phase in
sequence will cause the rotor to
rotate by adjusting to the
changing magnetic fields.
 Although it operates at fairly low
speed, the PM motor has a
relatively high torque
characteristic.
 These are low cost motors with
typical step angle ranging
between 7.5⁰ to 15⁰.
[Link]
Hybrid stepper motor
 Hybrid stepping motors combine a
permanent magnet and a rotor with metal
teeth to provide features of the variable
reluctance and permanent magnet motors
together.
 In the center of the rotor, an axial
permanent magnet is provided. It is
magnetized to produce a pair of poles as
North (N) and South (S)

[Link]
Hybrid stepper motor
 When a winding is energized, north and
south poles are created, depending on the
polarity of the current flowing.
 These generated poles attract the
permanent poles of the rotor and also the
finer metal teeth present on rotor.
 The rotor moves one step to align the
offset magnetized rotor teeth to the
corresponding energized windings.

[Link]
Servomotor
 Servomotors are special electromechanical devices
that produce precise degrees of rotation.
 A servo motor is a DC or AC or brushless DC motor
combined with a position sensing device.
 Servomotors are also called control motors as they are
involved in controlling a mechanical system.
DC servomotors
 DC operated servomotors are usually respond to error
signal abruptly and accelerate the load quickly.
 A DC servo motor is actually an assembly of four
separate components, namely:
 DC motor
 gear assembly
 position-sensing device
 control circuit
AC servo motor
 In this type of motor, the magnetic force is generated
by a permanent magnet and current which further
produce the torque.
 It has no brushes so there is little noise/vibration.
 This motor provides high precision control with the
help of high resolution encoder.
 The stator is composed of a core and a winding.
 The rotor part comprises of shaft, rotor core and a
permanent magnet.
Servo motor
 Advantages of servo motors
 Provides high intermittent torque, high torque to inertia
ratio, and high speeds
 Work well for velocity control
 Available in all sizes
 Quiet in operation
 Smoother rotation at lower speeds
Servo motor
 Disadvantages of servo motors
 More expensive than stepper motors
 Require tuning of control loop parameters
 Not suitable for hazardous environments or in vacuum
 Excessive current can result in partial demagnetization of
DC type servo motor
Selection criteria
 Various designs are available to satisfy the
requirements of industry.
 Selection of electric motor -> important and tedious
 Various factors that are essntial to be considered in
the selection of an electric motor
Selection criteria
 Type of Electric Supply
 3 Phase / 1 Phase, AC / DC
 Drives variants
 Group drive -> multiple machines , shaft drive
 Individual drive
 Multiple motors
Selection criteria
 Electrical Characteristics
 Speed control
 Starting torque
 Stalling conditions
 Braking characteristics
 Mechanical Considerations
 Construction
 Bearings: Ball / roller bearings, Bush bearings
 Selection criteria
 Drives
 Belt / chain / Rope / Gear
 Noise level
 Temperature conditions, heating
 Service Capacity
 Continuous duty / short-time duty / intermittent duty
 Rating
 Voltage , current, speed, excitation, efficiency, power output
 Appearance
 Cost considerations