B Corp., a medical device manufacturer had recently been considering the development of a new product to reduce the cost of syringe pumps to increase the competitiveness of their products. Ms. A, manager of the company's development department, shared her story:
"Our goal was to reduce the cost of the device by 20~30%. This led us to the idea of replacing the stepping motor on the syringe pump shaft. The current model uses a 5-phase stepping motor and driver, but we thought that replacing it with a 2-phase motor would lead to considerable cost savings.
We had also experienced difficulties in designing 5-phase drivers because the design technology had not been taken over due to the retirement of engineers...From a technical standpoint, it was easier for us to design a 2-phase driver ourselves."
Ms. A and her development team started gathering information to find stepping motors that met their requirements.
"We were concerned that replacing a 5-phase stepping motor with a 2-phase motor would increase noise. Since medical equipment is used near patients, consideration of noise is also a prerequisite.
We contacted several manufacturers of motors both in Japan and overseas, but they were unable to offer proposals that met our performance and cost requirements, so the replacement of the motors was not a easy challenge," she said.
Looking for a solution, Ms. A visited the SANYO DENKI booth at a technology expo and discussed her issues with them.
After hearing her problems and requests carefully, a SANYO DENKI sale representative confirmed the operating conditions and proposed a 2-phase stepping motor of one size smaller. Ms. A and her team was very interested in the proposal and requested a sample for prototype evaluation right away.
"SANYO DENKI carefully checked the operating conditions and other specifications we were looking for. First, we were considering the same size as the current model, but by modifying the windings, we found that the torque would not be a problem even if the size was reduced.
We have in-house design know-how for versatile 2-phase drivers. If we can replace it to 2-phase, we will be able to prevent dependence of work to individual.
Regarding the noise that we were concerned about, the driver was able to control the vibration that caused the noise. Also, when we discussed our concern about the rattling of the shaft, SANYO DENKI suggested a customization and solved the problem. With all kinds of technical support, we were able to keep the noise at an acceptable level.
As for evaluation samples, they quickly provided us with torque-minimum samples in consideration of the performance range, so we were able to move on to mass production with no worries."
The results of the actual device evaluation were as expected, and B Corp. officially decided to use the 2-phase stepping motor. "SANYO DENKI did more than simply providing a quotation in response to our requests. They listened carefully to our issues, made proposals for customization and other solutions, held meetings with their engineers in attendance, and submitted data such as noise levels and other related materials. Thanks to these efforts, we were able to successfully replace the motor with a 2-phase stepping motor, thus realizing cost reductions. I really appreciated their great support. We will continue to count on SANYO DENKI's help in the future," said Ms. A.
Date of publication: April 10, 2019
