roll your own?

Jun 19, 2022 Last reply: 4 years ago 2 Replies

I recall working at a company making high precision manufacturing equipment, for semiconductor fabs. At one meeting, an engineer announced he wanted to design a custom motor, for a particular project.



I wasn't involved in that, don't know the specs. But I wondered, and still wonder, what would be the requirement for a custom design? From a system perspective, my view of 'motor design' is thumbing through vendors' manuals. There are thousands of models available, of every form factor and power level.



Why would you need to roll your own?


A wafer scanner has high-power lightweight motors that move big things around with nanometer precision, even in motion. That is a very special motor.

Some aircraft and spacecraft motors have to run at +- hundreds of degrees C. Lots of motors, valves, alternators, solenoids, synchros, torque motors, things like that on airplanes are full custom. It's even hard to get data sheets.

I've had to get used units by various means and measure them. Some people even consider the weight to be secret.

ebay sometimes helps, or second-tier suppliers, basically aircraft junkyards.

1) Can't get one. 1.a) Can only get one through sketchy and unreliable channels. 2) Control of quality parameters is a universally agreed critical risk item. 3) The motor design team is owed a favor and out of charge numbers. 4) You need to put a motor in yourself:
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