Motor offers built-in HMI option

Evidence of Festo`s growing push into the electrical drives market was on show at the recent Total Packaging show in Birmingham, UK, where it unveiled a new range of DC motors with integrated controls, power electronics and encoders. The MTR-DCI motors even offer the option of a built-in HMI with a keypad and LCD for teaching and editing duties (shown below).

The motors, aimed at applications such as the automation of conveyor pitch adjustments, are the first to be designed and built entirely by Festo at its Rohrbach plant in Germany.

The IP54 motors offer a choice of torques from 0.16-7.7Nm and gearboxes with 7:1 or 14:1 ratios. Communications will include CANopen, Profibus DP and DeviceNet, as well as four-bit I/O.

"This is an unique product and the first to integrate so many attributes into a single device," claims Nigel Dawson, Festo`s electrical drives product manager for the UK. "This high level of integration, with the motor and power electronics in the same housing, saves users time and costs in wiring. It also eliminates EMC issues and is another step towards effective integration with distributed control."