What are the advantages of stepper motors over servo motors?
The question of the relative merits of stepper verus servo based systems comes up from time to time. This write-up serves to provide some clarity on this. NSI elected to adopt stepper motor solutions. NSI can interface to and control servo motors and there are a select few cases where this approach is warranted, as addressed in: Is a system with feedback better than an open-loop system? In order to address the topic certain terms have to be defined. These are, Step Size Maximum Static Positioning Error Open-Loop Feedback Open-Loop Position Repeatability Encoder Tacho Dead-Band Tolerance or Lock Window Following Error Steppers motors help us make our systems very reliable and fast, while maintaining very accurate control of axis position, implying small following errors. This can be achieved for ANY load up to a certain maximum value, at which time a stepper will stall without damage to the motor. Open loop stepper motors allow us to avoid positioning problems which result from closed l
