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Meet Copley Controls at SPS 2026
Visit Copley Controls at SPS 2026 in Nuremberg, Germany. Explore servo drives, motion controllers, robotics solutions, EtherCAT networking, encoder integration, and schedule a one-on-one technical meeting.
What Real Motion Control Support Looks Like
Tuning a servo loop, commutating a motor and integrating a drive with the right feedback device and controller takes real engineering effort, and it’s rarely finished the moment the purchase order clears.
Why Servo Drive Lead Times Have Become an Engineering Problem
Servo drive lead times across the motion control industry have stretched to five or six months — and in some cases, even longer. When a critical component is that far out, it stops being a purchasing inconvenience and turns into an engineering constraint.
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Servomotors and Drives for Heat-Sensitive Applications: Part I
A robot's motor case temperature must stay cool enough to avoid injury or discomfort to the people working nearby, and safely and effectively dissipating heat can be a challenge as the drive is often built into the same casing as the motor. Here we take a look at how to keep a drive and motor integrated into a robot joint within its thermal limits. First, we cover where the heat comes from and how to reduce it in the drive.
How to Size a Motor for a Robot: From Motion Profile to Peak and Continuous Torque
When sizing a motor for a robot, there are two kinds of torque that you should pay attention to: the peak torque the motor must deliver at the highest load of the move and the continuous torque it must sustain over the whole duty cycle. Get the first wrong, and the robot lags, faults or drops its payload. Get the second wrong, and the motor runs hot and trips on thermal faults hours into a shift, long after it passed every bench test.
Why Absolute Encoders Are Non-Negotiable in Semiconductor Handling
Semiconductor equipment like wafer-handling robots, precision inspection stages and packaging equipment have high-performance motion requirements. Here we explain how absolute encoders enable the fast, smooth motion, fault recovery and reliability necessary in semiconductor handling and which absolute encoder types suit each axis.
Absolute Encoder Interfaces for Brushless Motor Control: Part II
Newer absolute encoder interfaces can cut wiring to two conductors, carry functional safety data alongside position and run at Ethernet speeds. They also differ in licensing, power requirements and how widely they are used, so the right choice depends on your motor, drive and safety needs. In Part II we review EnDat® 2.2, EnDat 3, HIPERFACE®, HIPERFACE DSL, Absolute-A™ and DRIVE-CLiQ® and compare all eight interfaces.
Absolute Encoder Interfaces for Brushless Motor Control: Part I
The interface between an absolute encoder and a servo drive does more than carry position data. It sets how quickly that data reaches the servo loops, whether the drive can read the encoder's memory and how errors are detected. If you choose an interface with too much latency, the servo loop stability suffers.
Meet Copley Controls at SPS 2026
Visit Copley Controls at SPS 2026 in Nuremberg, Germany. Explore servo drives, motion controllers, robotics solutions, EtherCAT networking, encoder integration, and schedule a one-on-one technical meeting.