Everything You Need To Know About Stepper Motors

What is a stepper motor?

A stepper motor is a type of brushless synchronous DC motor, unlike many other standard types of electric motors, it does not just continuously rotate for a number of spins until the DC voltage passing to it is turned off.

On the contrary, a stepper motor is a precise start and stop of a digital input and output device. They are constructed in such a way that the current passing through it hits a series of coils arranged in phases, which can be powered on and off in quick sequence. This allows the motor to go through a small part of the rotation, these separate predetermined stages, which we call "steps."

Stepper motors are designed to break a complete rotation into many smaller (essentially equal) partial rotations. For practical purposes, these can be used to guide the stepper motor through a set angle or rotation. The end result is that stepper motors can be used to transfer precise movements to mechanical parts that require high precision.

Stepper motors are usually digitally controlled as a key component in an open-loop motion control positioning system. They are most commonly used in holding or positioning applications, where their ability to assert more clearly defined rotational position, speed and torque makes them ideally suited for extremely demanding motion control tasks.

Types of stepper motor

2 phase stepper motor

The 2 phase stepper motor is a hybrid stepper motor with 2 phase. The stepper motor has the following advantages: First, good overload. The speed is not affected by the size of the load. Stepper motors have strict requirements on speed and position. The second is easy to control. The stepper motor rotates in units of "steps", and the digital features are more obvious. Third, the stepping motor has a simple structure. The traditional mechanical speed and position control structure is complicated and difficult to adjust. After adopting the stepping motor, the whole machine has a simple and compact structure.

Hybrid stepping motor

Hybrid stepping motors allow for more precision through techniques such as half-stepping and micro-stepping. Micro-stepping is a method to increase the number of fixed steps within the motor, which sends an alternating sine/cosine waveform to the coil through a programmed drive. Doing so usually means that the stepper motor can be set to run more smoothly and more accurately than the standard setting.

Hybrid stepper motors usually have two poles or teeth, and the magnets around the two different cups are offset outside the rotor. This also means that stepping and rotation can be controlled more precisely, as well as providing quieter operation, higher torque size ratio and greater output speed than standard stepper motors.

Powerful capabilities of highly reliable stepper motors

Stepper motors are often mistakenly regarded as lessers of servo motors, but in fact, they are highly reliable, just like servo motors. The motor runs accurately and synchronously with the pulse signal output from the controller to the driver to achieve highly accurate positioning and speed control. Stepper motor is a high torque stepper motor, and has low vibration at low speeds, ideal applications requiring fast positioning in short distances.

"Stepper motor? Servo motor must have better performance." When asked about stepper motor, this is a typical response. Obviously, there is a major misunderstanding about stepper motors. In fact, stepper motors have been used in various types of applications, such as advanced equipment and convenient automated instruments.