Manufacturing Automation: Top five trends in motion control
by Treena Hein
A roundup of the latest technology and market trends for 2023
Photo: kynny / iStock / Getty Images Plus / Getty Images.
Motion control systems – as a whole and their component parts – continue to be updated, along with all other robotic technologies used across manufacturing.
Hot demand is driving healthy competition for new designs. According to Warren Osak, president of Electromate in Vaughn, Ont., demand for motion control is staying at historic levels. This is due to the economic recovery and pent-up demand that’s flowed after pandemic lockdowns, he says, as well as “the rush to automate factories to avoid further production disruptions in the event of future lockdowns.”
Lafert North America also confirms a rising market demand for packaged motor and drive solutions, says Lafert sales engineer Matthew Temple.
Before we do a deep dive into specific motion control system trends for 2023, let’s take a quick look at where demand is hottest. Like many others, Osak points to automated guided vehicles (AVG) and autonomous mobile robots (AMR) as one of the two fastest-growing markets, where technology has to meet the growing and aggressive expectations for speed, positional accuracy and service life. Demand in this area is also high for compact designs that can handle high loads.
