Iván Hernández Dalas: How gearbox ratio selection impacts inertia matching, servo tuning, and machine performance
Sponsored by GAM. Imagine a small child trying to push a full-size adult in a shopping cart. It’s possible to get the cart moving (barely), but it would be very hard to start or stop. Steering could be disastrous—the child may not make it around a corner in time. A high inertia ratio between a load and a servo motor is like a small child pushing a heavy cart; it would be difficult to start and stop, and response can be sluggish. (Image courtesy of GAM.) “In servo tuning, this is when you don’t have enough of a ratio in your gearbox, and your inertia ratio between your motor and load is too high,” says Matt Ruggles, senior design engineer at GAM, a U.S.-based manufacturer of servo gear reducers and other motion control components. Now consider a large adult who doesn’t know their own strength, pushing a small child in a shopping cart. They could completely overpower the cart, making turns too fast and throwing the child around inside the basket, potentially hurting them. “This wo...