Faulhaber (company)

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Dr. Fritz Faulhaber GmbH & Co.KG

logo
legal form GmbH & Co. KG
founding 1947
Seat Schönaich , Germany
management Gert Frech-Walter,
Thomas Bertolini
Number of employees 1800 (2017)
sales 226 million euros (2015)
Branch Drive technology
Website www.faulhaber.com

Faulhaber is a high-tech supplier in the field of miniature and micro drive technology . The headquarters with over 600 employees is located in Schönaich . Faulhaber has development and production sites in Switzerland , Romania and Hungary . Faulhaber employs over 1900 people worldwide.

Faulhaber manufactures small and very small DC motors as well as matching precision gears and other mechanical and electronic components for the construction of complete small and miniature drive systems.

history

In 1947 Fritz Faulhaber senior founded Dr. Fritz Faulhaber precision engineering workshops . In the early 1950s Faulhaber designed a camera model called Vitessa , which he sold to the camera manufacturer Voigtländer in Braunschweig. Voigtländer commissioned him to develop an electric motor for the automatic film transport. In order to meet the requirements of such a motor (small, light, energy-saving, smooth running), Faulhaber developed an electric motor that had a self-supporting ironless rotor coil. The diagonally wound coil, stabilized by synthetic resin , is known today as the Faulhaber winding . From 1956 the engine was mass-produced by Faulhaber and a patent was applied for in 1958. The patent was granted in 1965.

In the 1960s, small motors produced by Faulhaber were used, among other things, in pocket dictation machines and in film cameras made by the French manufacturer Beaulieu . In 1970 Faulhaber began producing encoders and pulse-width modulated controls with which the drives could be electronically controlled and positioned for the first time. In 1973, the company developed a motor with copper - graphite - commutation , the among others Philips and Compudata in inserting computer printers. In the mid-1970s, Faulhaber began developing and building customer-specific drive systems, which today make up 45 percent of production.

In 1949, the company's headquarters moved from the original founding place Murrhardt to Schönaich south of Stuttgart . Today's Schönaich location has 22,000 square meters of space for production , logistics and administration .

In 1961, MicroMo Electronics Inc. was founded in the USA as a sales subsidiary and later expanded with its own development capacities . In 1962, Minimotor SA (Switzerland) was founded as a further development and production location. Production sites in Hungary and Romania were set up in 1997 and 2005.

From the turn of the millennium Faulhaber took over a number of smaller German and European engine and precision technology manufacturers: FTB Feintechnik Bertsch GmbH in 1999 , Arsape SA (Switzerland) in 2000 (renamed Precistep SA in 2008 ), LMM Kft Budapest in 2001 , MPS Micro Precision Systems in 2003 AG (Switzerland) and mymotors & actuators GmbH , 2007 Rolla Microgear AG (Switzerland), 2008 MPS Décolletage SA (Switzerland) and 2014 PDT Präzisionsdrehteile GmbH .

Faulhaber winding

This type of winding is used in bell-armature motors . The rotating armature does not consist of copper wire that is wound around a grooved iron core, but of a diagonally wound coil without a supporting frame, which is shaped by the inclined arrangement of the conductors and a thermally bonded synthetic resin impregnation against the centrifugal forces that occur during rotation is held. The coil sits together with the commutator in the form of a cup or a bell on the drive shaft . The Faulhaber winding and other slightly different self-supporting windings developed later are also referred to as ironless or air-gap windings.

In the case of coreless motors with bell- shaped armature, the permanent magnet belonging to the stator is placed in the open interior of the rotor coil. This enables a particularly compact design. The iron housing of the motor closes the magnetic circuit and creates mechanical stability.

Dispensing with the iron core reduces the size and weight of the motor and reduces the moment of inertia of rotors with Faulhaber windings, which leads to very short start-up and response times. Ironless motors have a lower power consumption than iron armature motors of similar performance, as there are no energy losses due to the constant magnetization of the iron core. The cogging torque of the motor, a result of the grooved surface of the iron core, does not exist in ironless motors. This means they can stop in any position and run smoothly in slow operation and with little vibration at high speeds .

Products

Faulhaber manufactures small direct current motors and micro drives of various types, precision gears , spindles for linear drives , encoders, electronics and other accessories. In addition to the individual components, the company develops and produces customer-specific drive systems.

Engines

The motor technologies offered by Faulhaber include DC motors, brushless DC motors , stepper motors , linear motors , motors with integrated electronics and actuators .

DC motors

The DC (direct current) miniature motors manufactured by Faulhaber differ from iron armature DC motors mainly in their iron-free, self-supporting copper coil in angled winding (Faulhaber winding). Due to this structure, the drives have a low moment of inertia of the rotor, high dynamics and precise running without cogging torque. The compact design (stator magnet inside the rotor coil) and the use of permanent magnets with a high magnetic energy density made from the magnet materials neodymium-iron-boron , samarium-cobalt or aluminum-nickel-cobalt enable the construction of very small drives.

The company produces DC miniature motors in series with diameters from 6 to 38 mm and lengths from 15 to 90 millimeters, as well as DC flat motors (like miniature motors, but diameter> length) with diameters from 15 to 26 mm and lengths from 5.5 to 9 , 2 millimeters as well as DC gear motors with integrated spur gear .

For lower performance requirements because of their low will brush contact resistance motors with precious metal - commutation made. They are suitable for nominal voltages from 1.5 V and are therefore ideal for battery operation. In areas of application with a high power output, motors with graphite commutation achieve a long service life even under extreme loads. Bell armature motors typically have a service life of 1,000 to 5,000 hours. The commutator and brushes are usually the limiting factors for the service life of the drive; their wear is accelerated by high speeds and heavy electrical loads.

Brushless DC motors

Brushless (electronically commutated) DC motors are characterized by their durability and the ability to precisely control speed and position. The stator of these drives consists of several ironless coils with Faulhaber windings arranged in a circle, which are controlled by the direct current with an electronic circuit in order to generate the rotating field . Neodymium magnets (NdFeB) as rotors enable high drive power and high torque. The brushless design results in the long service life typical of this motor technology.

Brushless DC servo motors (3 to 44 mm in diameter, 8.4 to 90 mm in length) and brushless DC flat motors from Faulhaber are equipped with a few exceptions with integrated digital Hall sensors that determine the rotor position. The sensor output enables the electronic control of the commutation. In combination with external control electronics, the angular position of the motor shaft and speed can also be controlled. Faulhaber also offers the brushless DC motors with already integrated gears and / or control electronics. The so-called speed or motion control systems combine brushless DC motors with speed or motion controllers to control the motor current and speed or position in a compact drive unit.

The smallest brushless motor with Faulhaber winding has a length of 5.5 mm and a diameter of 1.9 mm. It weighs 0.1 g, reaches up to 120,000 rpm and has a torque of 2.5 µNm. The drive unit is connected to a micro planetary gear . External electronics generate the rotating field for the stator winding and control the micro drive. The micro-planetary gear allows torques that are well above their own frictional torques. Such micro-drives are particularly suitable for applications in medical technology (e.g. ultrasonic catheters that deliver images from inside the heart), for micropumps , grippers for micro-assembly and linear actuators in the field of optics or valve technology.

Stepper motors

Under the brand name Precistep , Faulhaber produces two-phase stepper motors, the rotor of which is equipped with high-quality neodymium magnets (NdFeB). As a result, these drives achieve a high power density with low volume and weight and achieve a very high torque. An optimal mechanical structure, consisting of a few components, makes the Precistep stepper motors insensitive to shock and vibrations.

Piezomotors

The multiple bimorph actuators of under the brand name Piezo Legs offered piezo motors are one body with four movable legs ceramic "muscles" sintered together . They are set into oscillation by an electric field and can be controlled in such a way that either a rotary ( Piezo Legs R ) or a linear ( Piezo Legs L ) movement results. Both motor designs work with a direct drive , which makes gears or mechanical power transmissions superfluous; the material is not subject to much wear.

The linear drive principle of the PiezoWave motor is based on two ceramic plates, which move the drive rail of the motor back and forth through synchronous vibration bending . Only two low voltage signals are required, different waveforms are possible.

Linear DC servo motors

Compact linear drives from Faulhaber (8 to 20 mm wide, 33 to 85.5 mm long) for generating translational movements consist of a fixed stator housing with a coil pack and a multi-pole push rod. They are used for linear positioning tasks.

Gearboxes and linear components

Faulhaber produces planetary and spur gears for the mechanical modification of the torque and recirculating ball spindles for converting rotary movements into axial movements to match the DC miniature motors . In combination with stepper motors or DC miniature motors with encoders and motion controllers, ball screws can solve precise positioning tasks, for example in laboratory equipment or in automated production.

Faulhaber offers planetary gears in variants with metal or plastic gears. The latter are characterized by their low noise and reduced weight. The all-metal spur gear units from Faulhaber are also available as low-backlash variants. With such low-backlash gears, positioning tasks can be solved with high accuracy.

Encoders, electronics, accessories

Magnetic and optical incremental and absolute encoders from Faulhaber contain Hall sensors or optical sensors that determine the angular position and speed of the rotor in the motor housing, as well as electronic components for processing the signal. An encoder creates the prerequisite for precise positioning and / or speed control of DC and stepper motors, which is then implemented by suitable external control electronics (speed controller, motion controller).

Faulhaber continues to produce brakes (permanent magnet single-face brakes ) and accessories (extension cables, adapter boards and programming adapters) for the electronic control of motors.

Business areas

Small motors, modified drive systems and customer-specific drive solutions from Faulhaber are used in medical and laboratory technology , in industrial automation and robotics , in measuring and testing technology, in industrial tools and equipment , in aerospace , in cameras and optical devices , in Model making and in various consumer products.

Corporate structure

The Faulhaber Group consists of the parent company Dr. Fritz Faulhaber GmbH & Co. KG with headquarters in Schönaich and 17 subsidiaries / sister companies.

Drive systems division:

Micro precision systems division:

  • MPS Micro Precision Systems AG, Biel / Bienne , Switzerland
  • MPS Décolletage SA, Court , Switzerland
  • MPS Precimed SA, Corgémont , Switzerland

Precision Components division:

  • Rolla Microgear AG, Grenchen , Switzerland
  • PDT precision turned parts, Nürtingen , Germany

North America Competence Center:

Sales and marketing:

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b The largest companies in Baden-Württemberg, cf. P. 11
  2. Faulhaber - company profile (accessed on November 13, 2018)
  3. cf. From the roll to the spool
  4. ^ Patent of the Faulhaber winding
  5. MTM Mediathek - MTM in the world of miniature drives (accessed on January 27, 2018)
  6. ^ Faulhaber Group - History
  7. Patent DE 1188709 B - Small electric motor
  8. Thorsten A. Kern (Ed.): Development of haptic devices. An entry point for engineers, Springer, Berlin 2009, p. 224
  9. Faulhaber catalog
  10. Faulhaber DC motors
  11. DC miniature motors series 0615 ... S (accessed on January 20, 2018)
  12. Faulhaber - Technical Information
  13. Brushless DC motors
  14. ↑ Extended family as a platform for the future
  15. Development of an ultrasonic catheter with an integrated micro drive
  16. Linear DC servo motors
  17. Faulhaber - Markets
  18. Faulhaber overview ( Memento of the original from January 28, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.faulhaber.com