Because the sun equipment in a hybrid unit is pre-aligned within the gearhead rather than affixed to the motor shaft, these gearheads can be utilized in contouring applications like a glue-dispensing servo motor gear reducers nozzle for affixing a windshield to an automobile. Movement of the nozzle since it comes after the seam between a windshield and its window frame should be perfectly smooth; otherwise a ripple in velocity alters the bead diameter and causes messy glue software.

Smooth motion, which means the absence of torque and velocity variations (ripple), is important in contouring applications. But, it really is difficult to consistently achieve smooth motion where the sun equipment is mounted on the motor shaft. A good slight misalignment in sunlight gear (electric motor shaft runout or coupling inaccuracies) can cause rough procedure and noise.

Many servo controllers use software compensation, and their success depends on knowing the lost movement of the entire system. This details is usually offered from the gearhead manufacturer.
Contouring applications generally involve end-effectors or tool-points that follow mathematically defined paths. Sealant and bonding devices, water and flame cutters, laser beam welders and cutters, motion controlled cameras, and CNC machine tools are good examples.

Software compensation is achieved by commanding the motor to go beyond the apparently desired position by an amount add up to the system’s lost motion, thereby bringing the load to the truly desired position. For instance, consider a servomotor, gearhead, and leadscrew mixture in a pick-andplace robot. If 100,000 encoder counts equals 1.0 in. of linear motion and the machine has 0.1-in. dropped motion, then your controller tells the electric motor to move 110,000 encoder counts to get 1.0 in. of motion, therefore compensating for the 0.1-in. lost motion.

Backlash is the extra space between two adjacent equipment teeth and its own engaging tooth; lost movement may be the total looseness or motion at a reducer’s output shaft when the input shaft is fixed. Lost motion includes backlash, plus losses from bearing looseness, tolerances and suits, and shaft and equipment tooth compliance.
Servo controllers could be programmed to compensate for backlash and lost motion in planetary gearheads. This system compensates for backlash actually where an application requires accuracy better than the minimal backlash of the gearhead.