SureStep motor automatic safety shut-off

Hello Everyone,

I have been given a task at work to construct an automatic actuator to perform accelerated life test on some of our products. I am using a SureStep STP-MTR-34066 motor with a STP-DVR-4035 drive and a DirectLogic 05 DD plc.

I have the system working with multiple settings for different products. What I am trying to do now is put a safety function in place, so that if the product happens to seize when no one is around, the motor won't keep trying to actuate. Is this even possible with my set up?

Through some research I have found that the motor being unable to move shouldn't hurt the motor, but I am worried about extra damaged to the product making it difficult to determine the initial cause of the failure.

Thank you for your help.

You might use some physical switches (prox or mechanical) at end of stroke to determine stroke success. Even a mid-stroke prox that tells you that the stroke occurred. Then, halt the test cycle upon stroke failure.

Yeah that is what I have been thinking about. I have a few different products to test with this one set up with the range of motion being quite different for each.

I was hoping that there would be a built in flag if the motor failed to make the movement that was called for.

Ahh well. This has been some of the most fun I've had a work, so an extra couple of days tinkering suits me just fine.

Thank You.

I was hoping that there would be a built in flag if the motor failed to make the movement that was called for.

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Steppers don't inherently have that ability. You could mount an encoder on the driven shaft and wire it into a high speed counter module in the expansion slot. That would give you the feedback to compare the actual position against the commanded position.