For more than 55 years Glentek has been designing and manufacturing servo drives and servo motors for a wide range of applications. Servo drives may seem to be just a small part of a complex system, but they are extremely important, and the team understands that every application is unique and requires special consideration. The new Gamma Series Digital PWM Servo Drives are the latest product offering from a leading servo manufacturer, with higher performance, expanded command and control modes, and various features that provide optimum control for high precision situations. Glentek is committed to designing and manufacturing products that will make any system perform at its very best.
Applications for Gamma Series Drives
Gamma Series Drives feature current loop bandwidths of 5 kHz, which is an increase of nearly 70% when compared to previous generations of digital PWM servo drives.
At these bandwidths, Gamma Series Drives can be used for applications that are typically reserved for linear drives. In fact, one of Glentek’s customers in the electronics manufacturing industry recently analyzed the performance of a Gamma Series Drive compared to a linear drive. The application required nanometer scale position control and the analysis found that the Gamma drive would be a suitable replacement.
Additional applications where Gamma drives excel include driving motors with high pole counts and/or high RPMs. Not long ago, a Glentek customer in the precision machine tool industry had difficulty finding a drive to control a 32-pole air bearing spindle motor that runs at 10,000 RPM. They reached out to the Glentek engineering team with this issue and submitted a motor for review. Working together with this customer, Glentek was able to set up and tune a Gamma drive to run the motor and meet the customer’s unique specifications. If speed is the most important factor, a Gamma drive can run a 2-pole motor up to 160,000 RPM.
Special Features for Gamma Drives
In addition to high performance, Gamma Series Drives can also be configured with a feature called the Profile Generator. Typically, drives are used with an external controller that generates motion profiles, coordinates movement between multiple axes, handles logic and I/O, etc. However, for applications that are point-to-point and only require single-axis control, the Profile Generator feature can be used in place of an external controller, vastly simplifying and reducing the cost of your system. The Profile Generator is programmed using the user-friendly Glentek software, MotionMaestro.
For applications with stringent safety requirements, Glentek offers two optional features for Gamma Series drives, UL Recognition and Safe Torque Off (STO). To become a UL Recognized Component, Glentek submitted their drives to Underwriter Laboratories (UL), an independent, non-profit, testing and certification company. The drives underwent numerous tests, and their designs were analyzed for safety, performance, and quality. Safe Torque Off (STO) is a safety feature at the hardware level which guarantees that no current will be supplied to the motor when activated. Therefore, it is guaranteed that no torque will be produced by the motor, resulting in no unexpected motor movement.
Comparing Gamma Drives to Our Other Products
The Gamma series offers the most options when compared to Glentek’s other product lines including the following:
- Command and control modes: EtherCAT, CANopen, and more.
- Feedback devices: SIN/COS encoders, absolute encoders, resolvers, and more.
- Input voltage range: 24-710 VDC or 110-500 VAC.
- Output current range: 4-75 Amps continuous.
Have Questions?
The latest offering from Glentek – Gamma Series Digital PWM Servo Drives have much to offer. We encourage you to explore the complete list of features and specifications to fully familiarize yourself with their many incredible capabilities. Should you have any questions or inquiries, we invite you to connect with a sales representative or our engineering team to discuss your motion control needs.