Every published article
12 articles, each reviewed and dated. The second column is the question the article answers, which is usually a better way to choose than the title.
| Article | Question it answers | Reading | Reviewed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cross-referencing a motor without requalifying the mechanism | Which parts of a motor change can be closed by comparing data, and which parts force the mechanism back onto a test bench? | 9 min | |
| What to put in a compact motor specification | What has to appear in a motor specification so that two suppliers quoting it build the same thing, and a field failure can be attributed to a cause? | 8 min | |
| Why apparently identical gears have different noise profiles | Two gears made to the same drawing, from the same material, with the same tooth count. Why does one train whine and the other not? | 7 min | |
| How center distance and gear quality affect current draw | Why does one gearmotor from a lot draw noticeably more no-load current than the next, when both pass every dimensional check on the drawing? | 8 min | |
| Why grease selection changes noise, efficiency and life | What does the lubricant in a small gearhead actually decide, and why does changing it change the measured performance of a motor that has not otherwise been touched? | 7 min | |
| How axial endplay creates intermittent noise | Why does a motor tick, knock or clatter only on reversals, only at certain speeds, or only in one mounting orientation, when nothing about the gear mesh has changed? | 7 min | |
| How pinion runout propagates through a geartrain | A pinion is 15 µm eccentric relative to its bearing. What does the output shaft actually see, and which stage's runout matters for position and which for noise? | 7 min | |
| Precious metal versus carbon brushes in real duty cycles | Which brush system belongs in a given application, and why does the answer depend more on the duty cycle and the supply voltage than on the torque? | 8 min | |
| Why stall torque specifications are routinely misused | Why is the stall torque on a data sheet almost never a usable design number, and what should be used in its place? | 7 min | |
| What happens during a locked-rotor event | A mechanism jams and the motor stops turning with power still applied. What fails, in what order, and how long is there before something is damaged? | 7 min | |
| How to estimate life from an application duty cycle | The mechanism runs a repeating cycle. How do you turn that cycle into a statement about how long the motor will last, and what part of that statement can only come from a test? | 8 min | |
| How to qualify a second-source motor | What evidence turns a second-source candidate into a released part, and how many units have to be tested before the result means anything? | 8 min |