What are the issues that need to be discussed for motor selection or customization?
We often receive inquiries about motor needs from customers from different industries. Due to varying levels of understanding of motors and their industry products, communication often results in insufficient understanding of customer needs or unclear communication of technical points, leading to the inability to match suitable products. To help everyone communicate more efficiently and quickly match suitable motors for customers, we have compiled several issues that need to be discussed in customer inquiries:
1. Customer's industry
Brushless DC motor products are widely used and can be applied in various industries (please refer to the special introduction on the website for details, which will not be listed in this article). Understanding the industry of the customer mainly depends on the motor manufacturer evaluating their own understanding of the field or whether the company's product qualifications meet the requirements. For example, military enterprise customers have extremely high requirements for product performance and stability compared to other industries, and have hard requirements for supplier production infrastructure. At the same time, they also need to obtain qualifications that meet the requirements of military enterprise suppliers (such as confidentiality certification, etc.). For example, in the automotive manufacturing industry, suppliers need to have TS16949 automotive quality management system certification. If the motor manufacturer currently does not have these mandatory conditions or qualifications, they may not pass the supplier qualification review or factory inspection when facing customers in the future.
2. Specific applications of motors
What product is the motor used for, what load is it required to carry, what action is it to perform, the working environment, operating conditions, installation methods, etc. These pieces of information can help engineers search for motor solutions applied in the industry in their own technical database, accelerating the progress of technical evaluation. For example, brushless motors used in pumps require minimal shaft displacement due to their unique applications, brushless motors used in rotating magnetic beds, brushless deceleration motors used in window openers have strict sound requirements, and brushless motors used in special applications require basic consistency in speed (constant speed) within a certain load range.
3. Main specifications and parameters for motor selection or customization
For example, basic information such as the diameter, length, shaft diameter, rated voltage (or working voltage), rated speed and torque (load point), no-load speed and locked rotor torque, installation interface, electrical interface, and the functions that the motor needs to achieve of a DC motor can be directly sent to the manufacturer if there are drawings or parameter tables. Engineers can quickly confirm whether the current product platform meets the requirements based on these preliminary evaluations.
Additionally, could you please let us know if it is necessary to select drivers, encoders (magnetic or optical encoders, resolution requirements), or brakes (related braking torque and method requirements), and if self-locking function is required.
4. Expected demand for motors:
Customization of brushless or wheel hub motors (performance or structure) generally requires a relatively long time, and the motor manufacturing process is complex and numerous. Micro motor manufacturers also have a large initial investment (research and development time cost, supplier resources, molds, materials, etc.). Therefore, manufacturers may have requirements for the number of customized motors or charge a certain research and development fee. If the market prospects of the project are unclear or the future market usage is small (some projects are used as a small amount of product validation), they will inform customers that there is no need for customization, and only make some improvements on the existing platform that can basically meet the usage requirements, in order to avoid excessive investment from both parties in the project.
5. Target price:
If there are expected cost requirements and target unit prices, please let us know so that engineers can choose the appropriate plan based on the unit price requirements when evaluating the motor scheme, in order to avoid situations where the motor meets the requirements but the cost is unacceptable. This greatly shortens the communication and adaptation time, thereby finding brushless DC motor products that match their applications faster.
6. Complete project schedule
Each enterprise has many DC motor projects, facing different requirements from different customers. If there is a detailed project schedule, engineers can arrange the time nodes of mold opening, material cycle, first sample time, experimental cycle, customer installation and testing, small batch, trial production and other stages in advance to match the overall project progress of the customer.
