Motion Control - The Entire Solutions for Motion Applications

We focus on the entire solution for your motion applications. Our designers select the most-efficient motors, best controllers, and integration into a highly efficient solution for your application.

Battery Operated Rotating Displays - Innovated design runs 48 straight hours without recharging

Challenge: Provide an rugged turntable store display that could be loaded with over 500 pounds of merchandise/promotional gear, posed no safety hazard to store employees or guests, was portable, easy to use, and be powered off a rechargeable battery for normal store hours (typically 12 hours).

Safety and simplicity are the critical items for this project. It is important that the display not cause injury to anyone or thing that comes in contact with the moving parts. Simplicity is needed because the employee knowledge and understanding of electricity and electronics will vary greatly.

Analysis: While Intellicon engineers are very experienced with portable, battery-operated motor drives, the critical criterion for this project was safety. The displays will be set out anywhere on the store floor and therefore having the potential of coming into contact with children and adults' hands, feet, heads, arms, legs and other body parts, both accidentally and intentionally. The display, therefore, must be designed to stop quickly to avoid injuries.

Results: Key to the safe operation of the display is the size of the motor that drives the turntable and the torque it applies. Using a typical design, the customer's requirement to carry 500 pounds of merchandise would dictate a sizeable motor in order to start the rotation.

Thinking outside the box, or rather standing things on the edge, Intellicon engineers developed an edge-supported load design for the turntable. This meant the weight of the display was not directly carried by the motor drive mechanism, thus the drive could be sized smaller. This downsizing also significantly reduced the cost of the display. In addition, this edge-supported design made the display lighter in weight and sturdier, two major advantages for a portable display.

The smaller motor drive means longer operation. The Intellicon design uses only 0.7 amps and 7 Watts to drive 500 pounds. This provides a continuous 48 hours of operation between charges!

The design incorporates Intellicon's own microcontroller for added features. Every unit has selectable speed and direction control, built in battery charger and charge indicator. The microcontroller also gives added safety through its superior programmable torque control. During an overload condition the user can select to turn off the unit or pause and restart.

The center rotating display needs to support up to 500 pounds. The entire unit also must be portable and self-contained. Recharging the unit can only occur after the store is closed.

Flipping the mounting of the rollers requires less torque to begin spinning of the table. Less torque means a smaller motor and lower cost.

Easy access and simple controls are Flipping the mounting of the rollers requires less torque to begin spinning of the table. Less torque means a smaller motor and lower cost.

HVAC - New controls applied to a single phase HVAC motor reduced energy use by 90%

Challenge: Update a 75-year old school facility with a central HVAC system that has fan coil in each classroom. While providing better temperature control in each classroom was a goal, the major complaint of the faculty and students was the noise generated when running the fan coils, making teaching difficult. There was also no local control of the fan coil units resulting in rooms that were often too hot or too cold.

Analysis: Intellicon personnel were initially brought in to create a custom motor drive control to provide individual fan control in each room. During their preliminary investigation it was determined that many of the classrooms had oversized motors that could be replaced with more efficient units.

Results: Working with the contractor, Intellicon engineers recommended downsizing many of the fan motors. In addition, Intellicon provided intelligent motor controllers that allowed for various sensor inputs including variable fan control and motion detection for room occupancy.

Conclusion: The occupants of the classrooms were very pleased with the results. The local fan control allowed for better temperature control and combined with the downsized fan motors eliminated the excessive noise in the classroom. An energy audit also showed that this combination of resizing the fans and adding intelligent reduced energy use by 90%! Energy savings alone allowed the school to pay for this retrofit in less than 6 months.

The Proof:

The 75 year building has had many HVAC upgrades in the past but this is the first to bring modern controls to the individual classrooms.	FlippiEach classroom is heated and cooled using a fan coil system.	Design had to take in effect the input power, space and weight restriction of the current fan coil units.
Installation of ¼ HP fan and local controller are key items for optimal temperature control and eliminating fan noise.	Simplicity of use is always a consideration with HVAC systems. The user simply dials in the required air flow to heat up or cool down the classroom.