Heavy duty drive for harsh environments

Product

May 31, 2014

Experts at maxon motor developed a heavy duty motor program that contains 22 mm-32 mm diameter brushless motors with shock, vibration, and temperature tolerances necessary for the exceptionally high requirements in space technology or far below the Earth’s surface where extreme operating conditions are prevalent. The company has different variants of the motors designed for operation in air or submerged in oil (flooded in hydraulic fluid).

Each assigned power rating depends on the surrounding medium and averages 80-220 Watts in air and, due to a higher heat dissipation, 240-480 Watts in oil. Every motor is designed to withstand ambient temperatures of more than 200 °C (390 °F) and atmospheric pressures of as high as 25’000 psi. It has also been successfully demonstrated to resist impulse and impact forces of 100G. The motor’s efficiency of 88 percent in air and above 70 percent in oil makes it useful for battery-powered applications. The motor’s detent-free running characteristics deliver regulation behavior, enabling their suitability for high-precision positioning tasks, even at low speed. Common applications for the motors include space technology, power plants, vehicle manufacturing, the aircraft industry, and in mining or other industries with highly dynamic movements.