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Unread 10-08-2006, 23:22
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Re: CIM Voltage and Motor Suggestions

Check out the CIM data given by its manufacturer. In particular, read these notes:

1) DUTY CYCLE:INTERMITTENT, CCW 3 MINUTES ON 2 SECOND
CW 3 MINUTES ON 30 MINUTES @64.0 OZ-IN,
2) LIFE:1000 CYCLES MINIMUM

shown near the lower right corner under the heading "Special Features." Admittedly it's a little cryptic, so let me try to parse it. In plainer English it says that, if you use the motor to drive a 64 oz-in (4 lbf-in) load that requires a cycle of motion in which it first turns counterclockwise as fast as it can from a 12V supply for 3 minutes, then rests for two seconds, then turns clockwise as fast as it can from a 12V supply for 3 minutes, and finally rests for 30 minutes before starting the same cycle again, then the motor will last for at least 1000 of these cycles. The load cycle thus described is typical of a winch, which is the application for which the CIM was originally designed. So the total operating time for this load rating (12V, 27A, 4 lbf-in, +/-4320 RPM intermittent reversing duty) is 6000 minutes or 100 hours.

Back to your question: can you get more power out of the CIM by increasing the supply voltage. Kevin correctly pointed out that you can approximately double the peak power if you increase the voltage by a factor of sqrt(2). Now your question is: can the CIM handle that?

The question amounts to asking how to de-rate the CIM for operation at higher voltage and higher loading. Cuog recalls correctly that dc motors can typically be operated at up to 150% of rated loading; however, this increase does not come for free -- the penalty for overloading a motor is that it will wear out faster. You may not care about this if your robot only needs to last for a few operating hours.

Two overload stress factors will tend to shorten the CIM's expected life. One is running at higher speed, which will cause both the bearings and the brushes to wear faster. The other is running at higher currents, which will cause the armature coils to run hotter, thereby degrading the life of the insulation, the commutator, and the bearings, since these are all parts of the overheated rotating assembly.

I wish I could give you a rule of thumb for de-rating the CIM -- something like "subtract half the operating life for every 10 Celsius degrees beyond the rated insulation temperature." But I don't have one, and I don't know who does.
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Richard Wallace

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I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.
(Cosmic Religion : With Other Opinions and Aphorisms (1931) by Albert Einstein, p. 97)

Last edited by Richard Wallace : 11-08-2006 at 17:30.