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Blogs by John A. Autero
What's a Linear Motor? 6/13/2015 3:19:43 AM
Scientists, Engineers, Tech-people have you ever heard of a linear motor?
The company that I work for is involved in plant automation and motion control. One of the components we offer is called a linear motor. For you techy folks, go here to see a short video about what a linear motor is and how it works. They look very high tech and robot like.
Why use a linear motor?
A traditional motor is called a "rotary" motor because as we all know it goes around and around. A linear motor doesn't go around and around, it goes back and forth. The idea is simple, basically take a rotary motor, cut it on one side and lay it flat.
Now... you're probably asking why one would want to do this. In many cases a rotary motor is connected to a belt slide or ball screw to produce linear motion. So these devices convert the motion from rotary to linear and do it quite well except for one caveat. There is inefficiency and loss of precision in these components because they are mechanical devices that have tolerances and clearances.
A linear motor doesn't have this loss of precision and can provide faster and more accurate moves than a rotary motor and ball screw combination.
So now if somebody asks you if you have ever heard of a linear motor... you can tell them all about it.
