Advanced Energy • Automation Controls Group • Avtron Industrial Automation • Baker Hughes, Inc.
Baldor Electric Company • Boston Strategies International • Copper Development Association, Inc.
Crane Aerospace and Electronics • Drivetech, Inc. • Glen Michalske Business Development
IMS Research • Incremotion Associates • Infineon Technologies • Kollmorgen Aerospace and Defense • Maxon Precision MotorsMicrochip Technology, Inc. • NovaTorque, Inc. • Opal-RT Technologies, Inc. • Onvio LLC • PBC LinearPLCopen North America • Power Efficiency Corp. • Powerex, Inc. • QM Power, Inc.
Rocky Mountain Technologies
Semikron • SKF France • SNTech • Thermotion Corp.

Thursday, January 28th

7:00 Registration Opens & Networking Breakfast

8:00 Welcome and Introductions

8:05 Keynote Presentation
Economic Outlook and Strategies for Success
The market for motors and drives has been subject to intense competitive pressure worldwide. Cost and price fluctuations have many manufacturers struggling to maintain a competitive edge. Learn the competitive options for manufacturers. This session will provide economic data, market forecasts and recommendations for small and large manufacturers of motors and drives.
David Jacoby, President • Boston Strategies International

9:00 Featured Presentation Panel Session
Advancements in Motor and Drive Systems and Design
Discover the latest advancements in motor and drive systems; from new materials and components to energy efficiency, as well as how and where the technologies are being used. The panel will also discuss how and where these technologies are being used.
Khoi Vu, General Manager/Vice President Aerospace and Defense • Kollmorgen
David Berkowitz, Dir. of OEM Test Services • Advanced Energy
George Holling, Technical Director • Rocky Mountain Technologies
David Levett, Power Electronics Design and Applications Engineer • Infineon Technologies Industrial Power, Inc.

10:00 Networking Break

10:30

Using Servo Motor and Drive Technologies in an Extreme Environment
An electromechanical precision pipe-cutting tool has been developed for oil field subsurface applications replacing ballistic explosives and hazardous chemical cutters. Three PMSM motors are used in the system. Motor drive and servo controls provide protection and stability over all cutting scenarios and exceptions. Line filtering and motor control design provided reduced noise levels in the resistive wireline power source to allow telemetry operation during the cut.
Otto Fanini, Staff Engineer • Baker Hughes, Inc.
Dr. Dal Ohm, President • Drivetech, Inc.

11:10
New Motor and Drive Technology Provides Energy Savings and Improved Reliability for Cooling Tower Installations
Nearly all hospitals, universities, airports and process plants have multiple cooling towers on site. The most prevalent cause of cooling tower downtime is failure of the right angle gearbox or associated mechanical components, such as the driveshaft or disc couplings. Hear new developments in motor technology that allow for the replacement of the high speed motor, driveshaft, couplings and gearbox with a slow speed permanent magnet (PM) motor and custom cooling tower adjustable speed drive (ASD).
Robbie McElveen, Senior Development Engineer • Baldor Electric Company

Using Electric Motors on More Electric Airplanes
Commercial airplanes are evolving into “more electric” airplanes, featuring more electrical content, including the addition of many electric motors. Hear overviews specific to commercial airplane power systems and the challenges of selecting electric motors for aerospace applications. Practical methods of converting three-phase AC power into DC power, to power DC Brushless motors that satisfy aerospace power quality standards will be reviewed.
Kaz Furmanczyk, Principal Engineer • Crane Aerospace and Electronics

11:50
Real-Time Simulation Technologies to Improve The Development of Electric Motor Drives
Real-time simulation technologies have evolved rapidly over the past few years to help in the design, test and validation of motor drives. Complex motor drive systems can be simulated in real-time on standard commercial PCs and FPGAs systems. Today’s powerful multi-core PCs technology and high-density FPGAs enable the real-time simulation of various types of motor. Learn the latest real-time simulation technology regarding motor drives. Hear the current state-of-the-art in this domain with regards to the hardware platforms and available models.
Christian Dufour, Ph.D., Simulation Specialist, Electro-Mechanical Systems • Opal-RT Technologies, Inc.

A Radial Airgap Pancake Motor for 21st Century Automation Systems
Advances in unit material handling technology have transformed the standard methods of operation. The newer designs use small brushless DC gear-motors internal to one of the rollers in a section to provide the motive power. The motor controller in each zone monitors a local photo sensor and simply communicates with the controllers in the two adjacent zones to pass digital request and permission signals as products move through the system.
David Hall, Vice President, Proprietary Products • Automation Controls Group

12:30 Networking Lunch

1:30
An Exploration of Ultra-Low Cost Motor Drive Design
Explore the design trade-offs associated with creating ultra-low-cost motor drives, without compromising control techniques, energy efficiency or safety. Three drive designs will be presented; a simple stepper-motor drive, a standard low-voltage sensorless drive and a complex isolated high-voltage drive. The actual Bill of Material (BOM) costs, control techniques, energy efficiency and safety features of the three designs will be compared.
Patrick Heath, Marketing Manager • Microchip Technology, Inc.
Daniel Torres, Applications Engineer • Microchip Technology, Inc.

A Highly-Efficient High-Performance Electric Motor Constructed with Low-Cost Materials
Improving motor efficiency above NEMA Premium or IE3 efficiency levels is possible with permanent magnet motors using Neodymium Iron Boron magnets and copper windings. However, the cost of such motors limits their application and is a barrier to more widespread adoption. Learn about a motor that achieves equivalent motor efficiency improvements but uses ceramic (ferrite) magnets and aluminum conductors. These materials open up the real opportunity for these super-efficient PM motors to be applied to wide range of applications which previously could not afford a high efficiency motor. A standard NEMA frame 56 motor is used as an example of what can be done with the flux concentration capabilities of a motor which uses the NovaTorque conical air gap axial design.
John Petro, CTO • NovaTorque, Inc.

2:10
Structured Design Method Application to Improve PLC Programming Efficiency
Learn how to use structured design methods with IEC 61131-3 conforming software to improve the quality, efficiency and maintainability of programming control systems. Using these methods allows people with different backgrounds and skills to create elements of a program throughout the software lifecycle: specification, design, implementation, testing, installation and maintenance, which is important where systems are being deployed worldwide.
William Lydon, Managing Director • PLCopen North America

Energy Savings in an Industrial Environment Using High-Efficiency and Super-Premium Motors
Discover the energy and cost savings experienced by a leading US industrial minerals producer through a systematic program of electric motor replacement with higher-efficiency models. The program will eventually involve more than 150 motors, most of which are of the IEEE 841 severe-duty-rated type because of abrasive operating conditions in the company’s mill and processing plant. Using operating data and accepted analytical methods, economic benefits are described in terms of return on investment (payback interval) and life-cycle cost savings. The presentation will also briefly describe the benefits of “super premium” motors above NEMA Premium efficiency, and the resulting savings potential.
David Brender, National Program Manager • Copper Development Association, Inc.

2:45 Networking Break

3:15
MR Feedback Systems: Improvements in Magnetoresistive Sensor and Processing Systems
In the past, motor manufacturers and OEMs were forced to choose between one of three feedback choices: heavy duty magnetoresistive encoders, low-resolution hall effect and gear tooth encoders, or light duty optical encoders. Each of these systems had drawbacks. Learn developments in MR sensors, processing and packaging that enable motor manufacturers and OEMs to apply these sensors, thus improving durability and performance of the entire system.
Brian W. Winter, Encoder Product Manager • Avtron Industrial Automation

Planetary/Cycloidal Reducer Applications, Opportunities and Solutions
Hear examples from three industries, packaging (pick and place), robotics (automated guided vehicle drive system) and defense (azimuth/elevation axis control). These will be used to show how the use of precision reducer technology was able to provide a solution, using standard components, either as a stand-alone product, or as a packaged unit, which added value for customers. 
John D’Amico, COO; Kris Kras, V.P. of Engineering • Onvio LLC

3:55
Smart Sensor Bearing for Efficient e-Motor Drives in Demanding Applications
Smart sensor-bearing is an advanced mechatronic’s solution to optimize the e-motor efficiency on demanding applications such as automotive electrical power steering, hybrids and electrical vehicles. Depending on the e-motor architecture, operating requirements and cost of an optimized sensor-bearing solution can be selected. This presentation will outline the different sensing techniques and will provide an example of applied design for Six Sigma methodology.
Stephane Moisy, Project Manager, Automotive Development Center – Sensors Integration • SKF France

4:30 Featured Presentation
Technical Improvements in Industrial IGBT Modules Required for Reliable Operation in Vehicle Traction Drives
Learn the technical challenges involved in designing high production volume, low cost IGBT modules for the industrial market that will also operate reliably in commercial and agricultural vehicle (CAV) applications. The specific technical issues are mechanical vibration, thermo mechanical wear out mechanisms, such as power and thermal cycling, calculation of mission cycles and control of silicon junction temperatures.
David Levett Ph.D., Power Electronics Design and Applications Engineer • Infineon Technologies Industrial Power, Inc.

5:00 Cocktail Reception

Friday, January 29th

8:00 Keynote Presentation
Motors, Drives and Motion Control - Global Market Update
Hear the latest data on the low voltage AC induction motors and large motors markets and discover market updates on motion control, as well as low voltage and medium voltage motor drives. The market updates will include an estimate of the worldwide market sizes in 2008, as well as a discussion of growth, both over the past few years, and a forecast for the next five years. This session will provide industry sector and geographic region breakdowns.
Alex Chausovsky, Research Manager, Motion & Drives Group • IMS Research

9:00 Featured Presentation
CleanTech Motor and Drive
Discover how motor and drive systems are improving energy efficiency and reducing operational costs. This session will focus on new technologies and design strategies for achieving today’s objectives for clean technology that yield performance improvement while reducing energy consumption and total cost of operation for motor, drive and automation systems.
John Petro, CTO • NovaTorque, Inc.
Jordan Bass, Business Development Manager • SNTech
Patrick J. Piper, President and CEO • QM Power, Inc.
Moderated by Dan Jones, President • Incremotion Associates

10:00 Networking Break

10:30
Automation on a Budget
Learn how to use commercially available drives, actuators and power transmission components to design and build an application specific, cost-effective package as well as how to build motion control based solutions to solve common problems on the plant floor and for small OEM equipment builders. This session will comprise the how and why to select the mechanical products, marring them to motors and then controlling them.
Glen Michalske, Consultant • Glen Michalske Business Development

MEMS Technology Renders New Miniature Inductive Encoder
Optical rotary encoders can achieve nanometer precision; however, they are limited to environmental conditions: dust, oil, vapors and temperature constraints, which can create costly sealing issues. Magnetic encoders address the effects of harsh environments but can sometimes fall short in mitigating the field effects of alternating current or magnetism associated with convention motor design. Hear about an inductive technology embedded in a 6 mm diameter package that is impervious to the influence of EMI and harsh environments.
Kirk Barker, Electronics Product Manager • Maxon Precision Motors

11:10
Single and Multiple Axis Linear Motion Systems
Explore the basics of linear motion systems and the most commonly used components and where each type is best applied. Hear a step-by-step procedure for designing a single- or multi-axis linear motion system. Participate in a discussion of good design principles, the top 10 mistakes most engineers/designers make and how to avoid them.
Jonathan Schroeder, Business Development Manager • PBC Linear

Regenerative Braking of BLDC Motors
Regenerative braking is a motor-braking technique that converts kinetic energy from a motor into an electrical output that charges the system’s batteries. Depending upon the application, using regenerative brakes can recover 30 percent to 50 percent of the system’s energy, which is otherwise lost as heat in brake pads. This presentation will present a hardware and software implementation of a regenerative braking system for a BLDC motor and verify its effectiveness through test data.
Patrick Heath, Marketing Manager • Microchip Technology, Inc.
Daniel Torres, Applications Engineer • Microchip Technology, Inc.

11:45 Networking Lunch

12:45
New IGBT Modules for Three Level Inverters
Three-level inverter technology is well known and widely accepted in high power applications because of its ability to overcome the blocking voltage limitations of available power semiconductor devices. Lesser known advantage of three level topology is its inherent reduction of switching losses that can be utilized to improve the overall efficiency of equipment. This presentation will describe a new family of three-level IGBT modules with nominal ratings from 25 A to 600 A. The internal layout, power chip selection and thermal performance of these new modules will be examined using thermography and baseplate temperature sensors under varying loads and power factors.
Eric R. Motto, Principal Engineer, Applications and New Product Development • Powerex, Inc.

Creating Useful Mechanical Work Through Effective Thermal Management
Electro-Thermal actuators employ thermal management to convert electrical input into mechanical motion through vaporizing a fluid, resulting in high output forces and long stroke lengths in a compact device. By balancing thermal input with force output, these devices have been used to engage 4WD drivetrains, control airflow louvers and dampers, regulate valves, and open/close dispensing mechanisms.  Competing against solenoids and synchronous motors, Electro-Thermal Actuators use Thermal Management to bring a unique solution to motion control applications.
Gary Swanson, President • Thermotion Corp.

1:25
Reverse Conducting IGBT for Drives: Cost-Performance Optimization for Consumer Drives
Through the monolithic integration of the free-wheeling Diode within the IGBT chip, a drastic increase of the power density compared to standard solutions with an external diode is achieved, allowing inverter board space and cost-savings by utilizing discrete packages of smaller footprints. Features and benefits of the new technology are illustrated by an in-circuit test, where the IGBTs are driving an induction motor of a commercial washing machine. The thermal properties of the chip in comparison with a conventional solution are analyzed and validated by electro-thermal simulations.
Bob Yee, Regional Marketing Manager, Power Management & Supply • Infineon Technologies

2:05
An Interactive Simulation Tool for Power Semiconductor Circuits
Take part in an interactive session highlighting an online thermal simulation tool. By walking through the tool with a live presentation, attendees will learn about its advantages and benefits. It includes a large number of different topologies, with multiple user-input parameters that can be uniquely adjusted to match actual application conditions.
Paul Moore, Sales Engineer • Semikron
Tom Rantala, Manager • Semikron

2:45 Conclusion of Conference