ClearPath^®

More User Benefits

Quality, Ruggedness and Reliability

It's probably obvious that the fully integrated design of ClearPath, by its very nature, will increase the ruggedness and reliability of your system. The most failure-prone element in all motion systems—the cabling—has been greatly reduced. In fact, the motor-drive cable, the most complex and troublesome cable, is altogether eliminated. But ClearPath has numerous design features, beyond the integration of the motor, encoder, drive and controller, that further enhance reliability. Read on to see how quality and reliability has been designed into every aspect of ClearPath, and you'll see why we're able to provide the longest warranty in the industry.

Motor Design and Construction Features
Every component in the construction of ClearPath motors has been carefully engineered using the highest quality materials, design, and manufacturing processes.

The rare-earth magnets are fully sintered, not bonded together with plastic; the wire insulation exceeds Class H temperature specs; the finish is anodized or electrophoretically-coated (not painted or raw); the extra-large bearings are permanently sealed; and more. Browse through the photos below which show the internal construction, and see for yourself.

Drive and Motor Protection Features: Rugged design and construction is great for long life under tough conditions, but ClearPath also has many features that protect it from mishaps that might cause immediate death for other motors—reversed wiring, shorted inputs or outputs, voltage overloads, mechanical jams, etc. Here are some of the protection features built into every ClearPath motor:

• Input Protection: ClearPath's control inputs are all optically isolated, and protected against damage from accidental reverse polarity wiring. They are also capable of sustaining a continuous overvoltage condition of up to 30 volts DC.
• Output Protection: ClearPath's digital output will comfortably survive a sustained or repetitive direct short circuit. It is also capable of handling accidental reverse polarity wiring (up to 1 amp of reverse current).
• Operational Protection: Sometimes things go wrong in a motion system. The mechanics jam, the software or operator sets too high a speed or acceleration, the power supply drops out, and so on. ClearPath motors will reliably protect themselves against damage in these situations and more.

• A built-in thermal sensor keeps the electronics well within their safe operating temperature, and also ensures that the motor windings stay well below their rated maximum temperature of 200ºC (most motor windings are only rated for 135-155ºC).
• ClearPath will protectively shut down if it can't follow your motion command as closely as expected. (For example, if the mechanics jam, or the operator sets too high a speed.)
• If the average torque load exceeds the maximum capability of the motor, ClearPath will safely shut down, so there's no need to worry about burning up a motor when something goes wrong with the mechanics.

In all these shutdown situations, ClearPath will dynamically brake the moving load. Other motors just freewheel when they shut down, allowing your mechanics to crash.

Production Quality and Warranty
Every single ClearPath motor receives a full suite of in-line and post-production tests to assure you of the highest incoming quality. This includes testing for:

• Electromagnetic performance
• Magnet field strength
• Encoder integrity
• Rotor balance
• Commutation sensor accuracy

• Critical mechanical tolerances
• Insulation system (hipot)
• Complete functional test
• HASS (Highly Accelerated Stress Screening) to test each motor beyond its published specifications

Unsurpassed Warranty
ClearPath is warranted to be free from defects in material and workmanship for a full three years. These systems are built to last.

You may be wondering...

...how we're able to offer an industrial-quality, state-of-the-art, complete servo system at prices that compete with DC brush and AC induction motor systems. Well, frankly, one of the ways we achieved ClearPath's low price was by simply leaving out certain features. To help us decide what to leave out, we consulted a large number of our most experienced users, and asked them which features they'd miss the least. If the features were costly, we just left them out. Doing this, we may have made ClearPath a little less attractive for some applications, but it means now you can use a servo system where you could never afford to before.
Read what we left out.

Of course, we did a lot more to reduce cost than just leave out a few features.
Here are the biggest reasons that ClearPath can offer high quality and high performance at such a low price: