Reducing your motion costs: 4 (and a bit) tips; with recession in machinery markets forcing many OEMs to extend equipment lifecycles, David Greensmith of baldor looks at some commonly used techniques. (Motion Control).

Many motion controllers come with enough I/O for the required sensing/actuating and safety I/O, and when machine builders decide to exploit that capability, savings can be significant.

A dichotomy exists in the motion control market between companies that use PLCs and those that employ dedicated motion controllers. One opportunity for gain is when machine builders convert from mechanical motion to electronic controls (for greater speed and flexibility, and less maintenance). They have typically used a low-end PLC on the machine to handle the basic logic and interlock operations, and often want to retain it for familiarity reasons (despite adding a motion controller into the …