August 2025 Product Roundup: Motors, Drives, Motion

ABB Medium Voltage Motor

ABB’s MV Titanium concept is a medium-voltage (MV) motor in the 1-to-5-megawatt (MW) range that brings the benefits of energy efficiency to MV motor-driven processes, which use 10% of all the world’s electricity. This motor offers energy savings of up to 40% for pumps, compressors, fans and other applications across multiple industries. Additionally, it has built-in intelligence with analytical and connectivity capabilities for integration into existing systems, as well as providing software libraries and interfaces for process monitoring and optimization.

Beckhoff Stepper Motors

The ASI8100 stepper motor combines a stepper motor, stepper motor output stage and fieldbus connection in an integrated design. These EtherCAT devices mount directly on the machine without a control cabinet or upstream I/O, allowing for highly compact, control cabinet-free machines. The ASI8100 series covers all motion requirements for stepper motors in the power range up to 250W. Easy-to-read status LEDs report drive conditions. Pre-assembled cables and infrastructure components, such as IP67 distribution box modules, are available as accessories.

Fuji Electric Multi-Functional Drive

The new Frenic-Mega is a 3-in-1 multi-functional inverter that helps reduce energy use. Features include a fan/pump function, UL12 type heatsink, Frenic mobile loader, network communication and a UL61800-5-1/2 rating, as well as expanded power ratings and flexible configurations that support 1/2 HP up to 1,000 HP. Additional features include 14 new functions including customizable logic, PID control with 4 PIDS and prevention of filter clogging.

ABB Variable Speed Drives

ABB’s new ACS880 high-speed VSDs are designed to maximize the efficiency of high-speed motor applications while minimizing output current derating. They are designed for use with turbo blowers and compressors requiring an output frequency of up to 1500 Hz. The ACS880 high-speed drives feature a standard choke for harmonic filtering. With frame sizes available from R1 to R11 up to 880A, the ACS880 drives are customizable to meet specific power, voltage and space requirements, resulting in greater energy efficiency, cost savings and CO₂ reductions.

Siemens Upgraded CPUs

Simatic S7-1500 CPUs for motion control have been upgraded to firmware version 4.0, which increases the performance, programming and data memory. Motion control runtime is increased by a factor of up to 2.5x. Communication performance is also considerably improved, resulting in higher data throughput and greater determinism of the user program. The CPUs' motion control resources are substantially increased to address applications ranging from speed, positioning and following axes to cams, cam tracks and measuring inputs. Typical number of positioning axes supported range from 115-205 at 4 ms servo/ipo cycle time and 35% CPU load due to motion control.

IDEC Safety Wheel Drive

IDEC Corporation is expanding its ez-Wheel product family with the new SWD Safety Wheel Drive. The SWD combines wheels, gearboxes, motors, encoders, controllers and power systems into a single, compact and maintenance-free system, reducing component count by up to 50%. With a modular architecture enabling it to flexibly scale as needed, the SWD reduces engineering time. The SWD is available in a light/medium SWD 125 model or a heavy-duty SWD 150 model both with a load supporting cast iron frame. A shockproof IP66 housing protects its internal electronics and ensures the SWD is adaptable for a range of applications.

Mitsubishi Electric Servo Firmware Update

The MELServo-J5 Servo Series now supports EtherNet/IP and EtherCAT, enabling network switching without extra hardware. The series comes with pre-configured instructions and compatibility with popular controllers such as ControlLogix and CompactLogix. MR-J5 features include: auto tuning to control vibration and overshoot; advanced vibration suppression control to suppress low-frequency vibrations of approximately 100 Hz or less generated at the end of an arm and in a machine; a machine resonance supression filter for frequencies between 10Hz and 8000Hz to improve machine vibration suppression performance; and an MR-CM simple converter that uses regenerative power through a common bus connection to save energy and reduce the number of molded-case circuit breakers and magnet contactors.

Omron Servo Motors

The 1SA family of servos feature advanced motion safety functions to enable risk reduction strategies and machine downtime reduction. The 1SA servos help improve overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) while keeping people safe and improving productivity by enabling manufacturing and maintenance to occur without machine stoppage. It also maintains machine control during unexpected shutdowns and provides zero-loss production with a synchronized emergency stop. The Sysmac Studio automation software enables standard and safety control to be designed and simulated in a sequential manner.

Regal Rexnord Cobot Transfer Unit

The Thomson Movotrak CTU (cobot transfer unit) 7th axis ships as a kit, including the linear units, gearhead, motor, drives, control box, software, end-of-stroke limit switches and cable management.  The CTU features a Kollmorgen servo motor and linear-unit-driven guide rails that move a cobot assembly from one task location to another — up to 10 meters. It also provides collision detection that stops the cobot when it encounters an obstacle. Users can adjust collision sensitivity settings on a control tablet during setup, and the Movotrak CTU motor drive and digital I/O manage collision monitoring and shutdown. Like the freedrive of cobot joints, the Movotrak CTU 7th axis freedrive functionality enables hand-driven setting of linear waypoints during programming. Users manually slide the cobot where they would like it to be in a sequence along the 7th axis and register it with a push button.

Schneider Electric Motion Controller

The Modicon M660 is an industrial PC motion controller that enables integration of control, data processing and communication in any application where real-time control, low latency and immediate decision-making are crucial. Programmed through EcoStruxure Automation Expert - Motion Module, the single engineering environment simplifies the connectivity of advanced data-driven functionalities such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and digital twin development. Features include: multi-core processor Intel 13th gen (U300, i3, i5, i7), 64 bit system, multiple field connections and interfaces, up to 64 GB RAM, Sercos for synchronized motion control, and cybersecurity protections such as: ISO 13849 and IEC 62061, safe stop categories 0,1, 2; TPM (Trusted Platform Module); ready for CRA (Cyber Resilience Act); and is IEC 62443 4-1 and 2 compliant.

SEW Eurodrive Gear Unit

The W..9HG Spiroplan right-angle gear unit is a compact unit for slow speed, high-torque applications. With gear ratios greater than 2,000 and output torque capabilities up to 600 Nm, the W..9HG series provides the high gear reduction required for extremely low output speeds. Compared to traditional compound gear units, the W..9HG is up to 27% shorter and 34% lighter, without sacrificing output torque or durability. With optimized tooth geometry and low internal friction, the W..9HG runs significantly quieter than worm gear equivalents or bevel-helical configurations for applications in noise-sensitive environments.

ABB Medium Voltage Drive

The ACS8080 can achieve up to 98% efficiency. It also reduces harmonic distortions by around 50% compared to classic control and modulation systems. The modular design allows for use of an external transformer and selection of a sine filter option for new applications and retrofitting existing drive systems or direct online (DOL) machines. Enhanced sensing capabilities and next-generation control hardware enable the collection of up to 10 times more diagnostic data for improved monitoring.