“The discontinued motor had a very low profile which enabled it to fit within the base plate of the antenna’s turntable mount,” according to PMW. “It also had a rear shaft for an encoder to provide position feedback – all the requirements were met with our GM9 brushed pancake motor.”
This motor has an iron-free armature, which means no ‘cogging’ or torque ripple under load, which “ensures the motion is smooth and meets the angular precision required for the scanner, as any ripple would have been amplified by the high reduction ratio strainwave gearbox”, said the company.
Operating from a battery pack, at 22V and 8.7A, GM9 is rated at 3,000rpm and 36Ncm torque.
“We can replace or repair most printed armature motors,” said PMW application engineer Nick Revels. “Drop-in replacements we have produced in the past have been for Infranor Mavilor, Kollmorgen and Yaskawa print motors, and for the KN series from PMI.”
Printed Motor Works manufactured motors in Alton, specialising in short body length motors and their integration into motion control systems. It is Europe’s largest manufacturer of flat brushed DC pancake motors. Its motors are used in industrial, aerospace, defence, medical and marine markets. – in-wheel motors are a growth area.
InterMet develops and makes surface and upper-air meteorological instrumentation such as radiosondes, ground receiving equipment and processing software for civilian, military and research markets. It has sites in South Africa and the USA.
Its iMet-1600 is a military grade tracking antenna and receiver, designed to track radiosondes using RDF or GNSS techniques to provide users with upper air meteorological data.