Industry Feedback Shapes Servo Motor Connectors

Dec 13, 2006 11:42 AM
By Mark Valentine, Technical Editor, Power Electronics Technology

A new series of connectors from ITT, the CmX family, reduces the cost, weight, and size of conventional circular servo motor connectors. It also combines and isolates power and signal lines within a single connector, eliminating the need for separate circular connectors for these functions.

A servo motor has three main sub-components. The first is the motor itself, typically an ac motor or a brushed-dc motor. The second is a resolver or rotor-position encoder for detecting the precise angle of the servo motor shaft. The third is the pair of power and data connectors. In addition to these components, servos may also include a thermal sensor and a mechanical brake.

While there is a trend to reduce the size of the first two main components, the size of the connectors has remained essentially unchanged, limiting the ability of motor manufacturers and their end-users to reduce total form factors. According to Olivier Miller, Director of Strategy and Business Development for the worldwide industrial market, this is a significant problem, because servo motors are the highest-volume components in the industrial market.

Figure 1: The low-profile of the CmX connector series contributes to the overall form-factor reduction of servo motors

The CmX connector family, shown in Figure 1, is specifically designed to address this problem, based on feedback from the industry. Miller estimates that weight, cost, and size of the CmX family are all reduced by approximately 50% compared to circular connectors.

Want to use this article? Click here for options!
© 2007 Penton Media, Inc.