The stepper motor is an electromagnetic device that converts digital pulses into mechanical shaft rotation. Advantages of step motors are low cost, high reliability, high torque at low speeds and a simple, rugged construction that operates in almost any environment. The main disadvantages in using a stepper motor is the resonance effect often exhibited at low speeds and decreasing torque with increasing speed.
The Main Advantages of Stepper Motors
- Low cost for control achieved
- High torque at startup and low speeds
- Ruggedness
- Simplicity of construction
- Can operate in an open loop control system
- Low maintenance
- Less likely to stall or slip
- Will work in any environment
- Can be used in robotics in a wide scale.
- High reliability
- The rotation angle of the motor is proportional to the input pulse.
- The motor has full torque at standstill (if the windings are energized)
- Precise positioning and repeatability of movement since good stepper motors have an accuracy of 3–5% of a step and this error is non-cumulative from one step to the next.
- Excellent response to starting/stopping/reversing.
- Very reliable since there are no contact brushes in the motor. Therefore, the life of the motor is simply dependent on the life of the bearing.
- The motors response to digital input pulses provides open-loop control, making the motor simpler and less costly to control.
- It is possible to achieve very low-speed synchronous rotation with a load that is directly coupled to the shaft.
- A wide range of rotational speeds can be realized as the speed is proportional to the frequency of the input pulses.
