From DVD players to air conditioners to portable medical equipment, you can find BLDC motors in a variety of applications. The brushless DC motor is increasing in popularity because of its long lifespan, increased stability and efficiency. With the help of optical encoders, BLDC motors can meet the precise design requirements that you seek.

Getting the Most from Your Brushless DC Motor

While hall sensors are available for brushless motors, optical encoders offer a more efficient and reliable solution, particularly in those that have more commutation pole pairs. Optical encoders have the following major elements:

• An emitter with infrared lights or LEDs that are aimed at the detector.
• A patterned disk, or code wheel, that creates a series of lights and shadows using the light from the emitter.
• A detector that translates the light patterns that pass through the code wheel into electrical signals.

While hall sensors generate a 120-degree angle, you can create an optical encoder to accommodate any range of degrees. Because the encoder’s operation doesn’t rely on motor phases, it measures finer movements. You can customize a code wheel on an optical encoder according to your pole-pair requirements and its only limit is the photodetector’s design.

Additional benefits of optical encoders include:

• Greater torque.
• Axial vibration damping.
• Less noise.

To learn more about how optical encoders can increase the efficiency and performance of your BLDC motor, contact Sinotech.