subject: Stepper Motors and Milling [print this page] Stepper Motors and Milling Stepper Motors and Milling
CNC Milling machines are an integral part of high-end production of doors, external decorations, internal decorations and wood cutting products; the right equipment is very important to continuous operations. The electric motors that power the precision movement are critical to the quality cuts being made.
Some basic operation knowledge is - Stepper motors operate differently from DC brush motors, which rotate when voltage is applied to their terminals. Stepper motors, on the other hand, effectively have multiple "toothed" electromagnets arranged around a central gear-shaped piece of iron. The electromagnets are energized by an external control circuit, such as a microcontroller. To make the motor shaft turn, first one electromagnet is given power, which makes the gear's teeth magnetically attracted to the electromagnet's teeth. When the gear's teeth are thus aligned to the first electromagnet, they are slightly offset from the next electromagnet. So when the next electromagnet is turned on and the first is turned off, the gear rotates slightly to align with the next one, and from there the process is repeated. Each of those slight rotations is called a "step", with an integer number of steps making a full rotation. In that way, the motor can be turned by a precise angle.
This type of router cutting is very complex but can be programmed through the use of quality CNC software, this with the right milling machine with correctly applied software parameters can produce this type of product in a production environment, this of course depends a lot the operator running the milling machine and his level of expertise.
Stepper Motors are designed for this type of precision cutting. Thet are also manufactured for long continous use in high production lines.
Milling machine manufactures are in need of Stepper motor components that meet complex specification depending on the other components of the router.
The technology behind the success of these machines has been under development for a long time, but stills has room for much improvement, 3-D modeling is one of the ways the industry is heading, allowing the operator to view the cuts as their being performed. The future of precision milling is an exciting one.
