DIB® Servo
A Remarkable Story of Innovation
Our engineers worked so hard to improve performance and reliability on the new Genesis® model while reducing cost that they actually invented a new type of servo technology!
This table compares conventional stepper and servo motors to the new DIB (direct impulse brushless) servo motors:
| Stepper | Servo | DIB | |
|---|---|---|---|
| high power output | X | X | |
| efficient (runs cool) | X | X | |
| can avoid gear reduction | X | X | |
| avoids separate commutator | X | X | |
| uses closed-loop feedback | X | X | |
| simple, integrated power supply | X | ||
| low production cost | X | X |
A DIB® servo motor produces roughly 10 times the power of a similar size stepper motor at much higher efficiency. It avoids the complexity of gear reduction and commutators (brushes or hall effect sensors/wiring) that are normally required for servo motors. It gains the full benefit of optically-encoded feedback. The compact, fully-integrated controller delivers up to 2.4 kW of power to four motors. The whole system costs less to manufacture and has demonstrated higher reliability than stepper and servo motors used on our older models.
Now that DIB servo has proven itself in extended field testing, we’re exploring opportunities to license this breakthrough technology to other industries. Our thanks go out to engineers George, Steve, Peter and Jason for inventing and implementing this incredible technology.
Original Video Footage
This video shows authentic footage captured when DIB servo motors first took flight during development. After a year of failed attempts, these clips show axes successfully moving at 1000 inches per minute, with unprecedented accelerations of 3 to 10G and efficiency that kept motors and electronics cool. Additional clips show how these unique motors were first able to make a Z-axis payload float against its weight and both ends of a gantry synchronized as though connected by an invisible shaft. (These never-seen-before features now come standard on every Genesis machine.)