Electric motor advancements

Authored by Jackson Bledsoe -

Overview

Over the last 50 years, the power and torque gap has been closing between electric motors (EMs) and the current gold standard for this, hydraulic motors (HMs). In the past, hydraulic motors have been able to produce more torque and power than mechanical motors by a factor of multiple magnitudes but as of recent, the gap has shrunk all the way to one magnitude. Electric motors offer many advantages over hydraulic motors and have been steadily taking market share as a result.

Different types of EMs

• AC induction
• AC synchronous
• DC synchronous
• Servos
• Read more

What makes a good environment for an EM?

• Continuous motion
• Precision required (precise speed and positioning)
• High speeds
• Where hydraulic fluid leaks are unacceptable
• Frequent maintenance is impossible or otherwise undesirable
• Clean environments 

EMs used in a wide variety of applications

• Lifts
• Cranes
• Electric Vehicles
• Pumps
• Robotics
• CNC’s
• Automated manufacturing 

What applications aren’t EMs appropriate for?

• High torque at low speeds (as direct drive)
• High force high speed
• High reliability in harsh environments
• Construction
• Mining
• Agricultural machinery 

Recent electric motor advancements

Axial flux motors

• Placing magnets on the faces of the rotor rather than around the perimeter leave more surface area for the magnets to exist on
• Dramatically reduces the width of the motor
• Reduces weight
• Heat dissipation becomes more difficult
• See below videos for an interesting overview

Cooling management improvements

• Different refrigerants such as  are promising alternatives to liquid cooling that could deliver lower temperatures
• Read more

IoT diagnostics for real time monitoring of EMs (link)

• Cloud based predictive maintenance
• Cloud adjusts machine in response to diagnostics
• Sensors perform vibration analysis in the time and frequency domain to identify failures remotely
• Uses ML from large datasets to recognise/predict failures
• No processing required on site
• Data transferred from the fog to the cloud layer via HTTP calls to the REST API
• Lowers the bar to diagnose problems with the motors
• Read more

Where is the industry likely to be in 5 years? 20 years?

Hydraulic motors are unlikely to be entirely phased out. GMINSIGHTS projects that the market for these motors is likely to grow a further 5% in the near future. Its likely that electric motors will continue to take more market share as the requirements for automated manufacturing continue to increase but hydraulic motors should still occupy an important niche such as in low speed, high torque applications.

In 20 years, if EMs were to successfully match the torque and power output of HMs, then there would be little reason to continue using HMs instead of in very small niche applications.

PACIFICfactory support

Our mission is to supply intelligent IoT solutions for diagnosing problems in factory automation. We are experts in overhauling existing systems to support automation and to improve your throughput. PACIFICfactory supports several suppliers such as Rexroth, Emerson, and many more.

Additional resources

• Our Automation homepage here
• Our Mechatronics homepage here
• Our Digital Transformation homepage here
• Our Application Segment page here
• Our About Us page here

Looking to implement EMs to upgrade your automation?

Consider a BOSCH product to really level up your automation here.