Stepper Motors

Stepper Motor
A stepper motor is a motor that moves in steps.

A stepper motor is one whose shaft moves in precise

angular increments for each electrical input.
Typical step sizes are 2, 2.5 ,3, 7.5 , 15, 30.

Stepper Motor
salient poles on both stator and rotor.
The stator poles are wound with coils
which carry relatively long pulses of
current.
The rotor poles are made from either
magnetically soft or hard iron.
Ns always different from Nr.

Stepper motor operation

Step angle
angle through which motor shaft rotates for each
command pulse
= (Ns~Nr)*360 / (Ns*Nr)
or = 360 / (m*Nr)
where Ns=No. of stator poles (teeth)
Nr=No. of rotor poles (teeth)
m=No. of phases
Displacement = * No of control pulses
(Rotation) Speed =(60*f) / SR rpm

step resolution SR=360 / step/rev

Comparison to Servo Motors

Servo Motor
Position Control
require some form of
analog feedback
not subject to this
problem

Stepper Motor
Position Control
often open loop
at high accelerations
with variable loads, all
rotor information is lost,
and closed loop is
required for accurate
control

Types of Stepper Motors

Permanent Magnet
Variable Reluctance

Hybrid

Permanent Magnet Stepper motors

Rotor is made of permanent magnetic
Material
No teeth on rotor
No freewheeling
more torque during rotation
Less acceleration
Difficult to make small step pm rotors with
a large number of poles. i.e. step sizes are
limited to 30 - 90.

Permanent Magnet
Stepper motors
Full Stepping
A-C
B-D

0
90

Half stepping
A-C
0
A-C,B-D 45
B-D
90

Variable Reluctance
Stepper motors
No permanent magnet
Free wheeling
possible

A - 0
C - 15
B - 30

Variable Reluctance
Stepper motors.
less torque

Hybrid Stepper motors

A hybrid stepping motor has
characteristics of both PM and VR motors
the rotor is a permanent magnet but has
blades like VR motors
Rotor is magnetised axially to create the
poles
motor has very high torque and very small,
precise step increments

Hybrid Stepper motors

Hybrid Stepper motors.

200 rotor teeth and rotate
at 1.80 step angles.
Also available in 0.9and
3.6 step angle
configurations.
used in a wide variety of
industrial applications.

Full step Mode

One phase is energized at a time

Full step Mode

Full step Mode

Animation shows how coils are energized for full steps

Half Step mode

Half Step mode

the second phase is turned on before the first
phase is turned off. Thus, sometimes both
phases are energized at the same time.
During the half-steps the rotor is held in between
the two full-step positions.
A half-step motor has twice the resolution of a
full step motor.
Fast response
Absence of detent torque

Half Step mode

Micro Stepping Mode

Smooth and low speed operation with high
resolution
Printing, photo type setting
A constant

A -decreased by very
small steps till 0 or min

B increased by very small

increments till 1 or max.
B constant

Advantages
They produce the highest torque at low
speeds
holding torque (not present in DC motors)
Rotor has no winding, commutator or
brushes quite, robust and reliable
operation

Applications
Precise positioning and speed control
Open loop position control
Torque : 1Nm to 40 Nm
Power : 1w to 2500w

Applications
Film Drive
Optical Scanner
Printers
ATM Machines
Computer peripherals
IC fabrication

Applications
robotics

digital control systems

tape drivers
disk drives
tool positioning
process control
X-Y recorders