National Instruments Releases New High-Performance Servo Drives and Motors

AUSTIN, Texas, Aug. 5, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- NIWeek -- National Instruments (Nasdaq: NATI) today announced new AKD Servo Drives and AKM Servo Motors that make it possible for engineers and scientists to easily build scalable, distributed motion control systems. The new products simplify setup and configuration for deploying custom motion applications to any NI real-time controller supporting NI EtherCAT technology including NI CompactRIO, PXI real-time controllers and NI industrial controllers. Additionally, National Instruments is releasing the NI LabVIEW 2010 NI SoftMotion Module that provides support for NI EtherCAT drives for simplified motion application development.

The new AKM brushless servo motors provide superior dynamic performance, are available in four different frame sizes and feature high torque, density and speed ranges. The motors use low-inertia rotors and feature low-cog, low-harmonic distortion magnetic design. The motors also are perfectly matched with NI servo drives and provide plug-and-play configuration with integrated Smart Feedback Device (SFD) technology and simplified cabling.

The new AKD Servo Drives feature simplified setup and configuration through EtherCAT technology and integration with the LabVIEW project, a feature in LabVIEW software that engineers use to group together LabVIEW and third-party files, create build specifications for executables and deploy or download files to hardware targets. The new drives deliver cutting-edge technology and performance with torque loop updates in 0.67 microseconds, and velocity and position loops at 62.5 microseconds and 125 microseconds. The AKD Servo Drives provide a solution for a wide range of applications, from basic torque-and-velocity applications to indexing to multi-axis programmable motion, using graphical system design.

The new motors and drives provide seamless integration with LabVIEW graphical programming through the LabVIEW NI SoftMotion Module to deliver graphical development for custom motion control applications. With the module, engineers and scientists can use the LabVIEW project to configure motion axis settings, test configuration, tune motors and quickly develop a custom motion application. The new version of the NI SoftMotion Module features an updated interactive configuration and a high-level function block API for increased ease of use and makes the execution of motion applications on a Windows-based system possible. In addition, the new module easily connects to the new drives and motors as well as third-party drives and motors using NI C Series drive interface hardware.

Readers can visit www.ni.com/motion to learn more about the new servo drives and motors and NI motion control software. In addition, readers also can view the NI Motion Control Bundle on www.ni.com to quickly and easily assemble a full motion control system.

About National Instruments

National Instruments (www.ni.com) is transforming the way engineers and scientists design, prototype and deploy systems for measurement, automation and embedded applications. NI empowers customers with off-the-shelf software such as NI LabVIEW and modular cost-effective hardware, and sells to a broad base of more than 30,000 different companies worldwide, with no one customer representing more than 3 percent of revenue and no one industry representing more than 15 percent of revenue. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, NI has more than 5,000 employees and direct operations in more than 40 countries. For the past 11 years, FORTUNE magazine has named NI one of the 100 best companies to work for in America. Readers can obtain investment information from the company's investor relations department by calling (512) 683-5090, e-mailing [email protected] or visiting www.ni.com/nati. (NATI-G)

CompactRIO, LabVIEW, National Instruments, NI, ni.com, NI SoftMotion and NIWeek are trademarks of National Instruments. Other product and company names listed are trademarks or trade names of their respective companies.

SOURCE National Instruments