I have offered the opinion that mechatronics is a field whose solutions are mechanically bounded. The limits to performance are initially constrained by the mechanical design of the system. This is no small matter.
In many companies the mechanical design and electrical design are separate activities. I know many companies whose mechanical and electrical departments are at war with each other after years of struggles and crises generated by the separation of the disciplines.
Sometimes the mechanical design team takes the lead in creating a machine with longevity as its primary constraint. And customers deserve equipment that runs reliably for many years. The mechanical designers may choose heavy materials for high strength to support the demand for strength and reliability.
The output objective, or how many parts per hour (minute, shift or whatever), is usually considered to be the responsibility of the control team. And this is where the disconnect starts. The controls team gets the project after it has been designed and without any consideration for the weight and inertia of parts, has to achieve throughput goals that may be impossible. And war is declared.
Because no matter how hard you try, you cannot overcome the physical limits imposed by the mechanical design. And there is an element of irony here, because many designs can benefit from proper integration of the mechanical and electrical spheres to achieve designs that are lower in cost and higher throughput.
What is required is a common understanding of the work to be done mechanically and the proper correlation of the mechanical to the electrical. Once both groups understand how their work impacts the other, then superior solutions can be created. As much as it may seem counter-intuitive, it is often possible to achieve throughput objectives and reduce equipment cost at the same time.
The linkage between mechanical and electrical is a few definitions of terms;
torque is analogous to current and speed is analogous to voltage.
The product of speed and torque is power (mechanical) and the product of current and voltage is power (electrical).
Now that everyone can communicate the same values, it gets a lot easier. Everyone needs to focus on the least amount of power needed to achieve the throughput goals. Then engineering for longevity can begin without jeopardizing the throughput goal.
And what often happens is once this dynamic is engaged between the teams, they can actually start doing some “outside the box” thinking and finding some solutions that could not have been arrived at when both teams were operating separately.
One project I was involved in had a throughput goal of 120% over previous performance, and we were able to achieve 132% throughput at no additional cost. On some projects we were able to achieve the needed speed goals and use smaller servos and amplifiers (lower cost) by finding the right gear reduction ratios.
It is ultimately a function of communications. As much as it may sound trite, the real value of communicating across disciplines is that better solutions and some unanticipated benefits become real world attributes of our projects. And that is a core premise of the mechatronics world.
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