DC Servo Speed Control...

Anybody here familiar with these motors from Kollmorgen?



I have 2 of these on an old rotary decorating machine and one of the speed controls for them just died. The speed control was made by a company called IED Inc. out of Central Islip, NY. Of course I can find zero information about it on the web...

Here's a picture of the beast (talk about old technology, huh?)
[attachment]
I'm looking to replace it with something made in THIS century, but I don't know where to start because I'm not familiar with these ServoDisc motors. Kollmorgen pointed me to Advanced Motion Controls (www.a-m-c.com), but I don't see why I need an fancy servo drive when all that ran it before was this old clunky DC speed control.

I think the only reason these motors are on the machine is because of their 'pancake' design. There's not much room where they go. IOW, the application doesn't require any of the special things these ServoDisc motors are capable of. It simple turns a heated mandrel that applies foil to a cap. No feedback, and it just uses a pot to adjust speed. It ain't rocket science...

HERE'S a link to the Kollmorgen page with these motors if anyone wants to investigate. The motor in question is a U9FG/I gearmotor.

Bottom line. Does anyone know of a speed control that will work with this motor?...

beerchug

-Eric

Eric,
I do not have any background with either the motor or IED drive you are in need of info on. However, there are several companies who are in the business of providing DC drive equipment for small motor apps. One could be http://www.sprint-electric.com/index.htm although I am not sure they will serve your purpose. As you described, you just need to operate the motor and not use its servo features. Another alternative would be to build your own dc supply to fit the requirements of the motor. Since it will be a pot adjusted supply, you could use something as crude as a VariAC and a bridge rectifier. Bam! Variable DC with a knob to turn. Yeah, that is a really crude solution but hey, if it works, then who is to say?

Eric-
You might want to try these guys:
http://www.kbelectronics.com/catalog_chassis.htm
I have found them to be pretty price competative. They are nothing special but they did make the drive you will get some time this year.

Keith

Hi Eric

To help I need to know The data for this motor.
If it 180V dC motor you can find driver from http://www.eurotherm.com/
Or http://www.danfoss.com/

If you need more info we have alot about DC motors.

Hi Eric,

This company is specialized in "pancake" motors : http://www.pmlflightlink.com. Sounds like they show on their site DC controlers from www.Geckodrive.com. You can perhaps have a look at http://www.geckodrive.com/products.htbml on G320 microdrives.

who knows ... ?

Regards,
Laurent

Thanks to all!...

I like your thinking Randy. As I said, it ain't rocket science. It's just a DC motor...

I tested the motor on our 'in-house, semi-variable' DC power supply. IOW, our 36V electric forklift...

Handy 3V increments and more amps than I'll ever need. Motor runs quite happily on pure DC (as I expected). Therefore, all I really need is a variable DC power supply.

Kamenges and Arik... This motor operates on ~11VDC at ~6A, so a standard 90/180V SCR speed control won't work. I actually tried one, but at such low voltage, the motor cogs. I'm guessing it's because the switching frequency is too low?

Thanks for the link(s) Laurent, those Geckodrives look promising...

I found some time to troubleshoot the dead speed control, and it looks like it just has a bad transformer. Even with the secondary disconnected, the transformer pulls 5A, gets red hot, then starts smoking. Seems bad to me. It's just a plain ol' 2A 48V CT transformer, so I went ahead and ordered a replacement. If that's not the only problem, I'm only out $15.

Even if I can fix it, I still plan to replace the speed controls with something better (or at least NEWER) than these relics... :nodi:

Update...

Sure enough, it WAS just the transformer, or transformermer as Terry calls it...

I screwed up and didn't specify 2nd day air from Allied Electronics (California), so it took nearly a week via UPS ground to get the replacement. 10 minutes to swap it out, and we're back in production!...

I think I'm gonna order one of those Geckodrives to try as a replacement for the future... :nodi:

Thanks for the help guys!... :site:

beerchug

-Eric