New stepper motor | Engineer Live

Introducing a new stepper motor that boasts exceptionally high speed and dynamics.

Stepper motors – so named because each pulse of electricity turns the motor in one step – can be very accurately controlled in terms of how far they will rotate and how fast. They can respond and accelerate quickly due to a low rotor inertia that can get up to speed fast, making them ideal for short, quick moves.

Miniature and micro drive technology specialist Faulhaber is quickening the pace in stepper motor innovation with its newest addition: the AM3248 stepper motor. With its speed and torque, the motor raises the bar in term of performance and dimensions. Offering up to 10,000rpm, it can achieve five times the speed of comparable stepper motors and, combined with a gearhead reduction of 100:1, it supplies a torque of 5Nm. With a diameter of just 32mm, the AM3248 is ideally suited for a wide range of applications within aerospace, laboratory automation, large optical systems, semiconductors, robotics and 3D printing.

“The AM3248 is the latest addition to our stepper motor portfolio and offers a very high holding torque of 85mNm,” says Julien Berger of Faulhaber’s sales department. “Its key advantage is its low inertia, which lets it reach speeds up to 10,000rpm with very fast acceleration.”

Berger goes on to explain the key features of the AM3248; a multi-pole, two-phase stepper motor that performs 48 steps per revolution. The motor starts with a high speed from the very first step; thanks to its low inertia, it can be used in applications that require very fast acceleration and quick changes of direction.

The motor features newly developed large ball bearings which further extend the long service life of this motor type. For its size class, the performance values that it achieves in combination with a 32GPT gearhead are ‘unrivalled’ on the market, Faulhaber claims. The motor can also be combined with an IE3 magnetic encoder.

“We see that this new stepper motor has a lot of success with our customers, especially when combined with our new geared linear actuator 32L, or with our planetary gearhead 32GPT,” continues Berger. “The highly achievable speed of the stepper motor, combined with a high reduction ratio allows us to reach large torque or axial loads. This makes the motor extremely suitable for precise positioning applications that also require high torque, such as in the laboratory automation, semiconductor or aerospace industries. Additionally, the AM3248 can be combined with our incremental encoder IE3-1024 to allow high-resolution closed-loop feedback.”

Let’s stick with the company’s new geared linear actuator 32L for a moment, which offers high performance and a robust design alongside a large a modifiable selection of screw and nut types. Equipped with a full reduction ratio range, the actuator can be combined with a wide portfolio of motors to deliver continuous axial force up to 54N and peak axial force up to 3,700N. The actuator is part of the company’s Linear Actuator L series, which is designed to provide high performance in compact dimensions by supporting large input speed and high output force. The series is suited to a wide range of applications including robotics, industrial machines and laboratory equipment. A large number of reduction ratios, uniformly distributed, are available to select the most appropriate configuration to fit various force or speed operating points as required by the application.

The AM3248’s properties and options make it suited to a wide variety of demanding applications, such as the aligning of solar panels of satellites. In this example, the motors move the booms so that the panels are always directly facing the sun. In addition to working precisely and reliably over many years, the motors must also be able to withstand the extreme temperatures in outer space.

In the semiconductor industry, meanwhile, very high dynamics and speed are required when positioning the wafers in very confined installation conditions in the machines. This is another application in which the highest level of precision and reliability are essential.

Berger explains: “As with our other products, we can adapt the AM3248 using the Faulhaber know-how and quality in order to match the requirements of specific applications.”

Expanding on this, Thomas Würgler of Faulhaber Precistep, the company’s corporate unit specialising in stepper motors, adds: “Our new AM3248 model meets all requirements and is ideally suited for high-performance applications of this kind. We are able to adapt the product to the requirements of the respective application, even in small production runs. We provide our customers with the entire drive package, including technical advice and support from a single source.”