What is SERVOsoft and Who Should Use It?

What is SERVOsoft?

SERVOsoft is a powerful engineering software tool that sizes complete servo systems, not just a single axis motor and inverter, but all components of a multi-axis servo system including rotary and linear motors, gearboxes, couplings, drives, inverters, infeed, capacitor and bleeder modules, with 14 drive mechanisms and up to 20 axes in a shared bus or stand alone configuration.

Who should use SERVOsoft?

SERVOsoft is for manufacturers and distributors of servo motors and drives, braking resistors, gearboxes and couplings, as well as OEMs and integrators for machines, robots and product handling equipment and other servo based machinery.

SERVOsoft is an engineering software tool that sizes complete servo systems including all electrical and mechanical components, with up to 14 mechanisms and 20 axes.

Unlike many other sizing tools in the industry, which are typically focused on a single axis motor and/or drive, or gearbox or coupling, using simplified models and calculations, and therefore are incomplete.

SERVOsoft is the only complete tool for sizing servo systems, using detailed models and calculations with no assumptions, creating better performing, reliable, efficient and cost effective designs with up to 80% time savings - every time.

The problem with other tools and custom spreadsheets

The main problem with other sizing tools is that they only size a single axis motor, and perhaps a gearbox or coupling. And typically their motor models are limited and use safety factors and assumptions to compensate for their simplified calculations. Finally most use very simplified motion profiles and load calculations.

While custom spreadsheets can provide a high degree of customization, they take countless hours to develop, usually apply assumptions and simplified calculations for a specific application, and therefore are only fully understood by the author. Custom spreadsheets are not easily transferable to others in an organization. This adds significant development costs and delay as new projects require new customized spreadsheets to be developed and debugged. This cycle has become so common place that few engineers and managers stop and question if there is a better way.

When it comes to sizing electrical components, other sizing tools are limited to a single axis, use a simplified motor electrical model and add layers of safety factors. None model the energy recovery and storage and power sharing between coupled axes. As energy prices continue to increase, energy efficiency has become a primary design objective, since energy costs can account for 95% of the life cycle cost of a servo system.

SERVOsoft addresses all these issues, sizing complete systems, including all electrical and mechanical components, using precise motor models, energy recovery, storage and sharing algorithms, with up to 20 axes in a shared bus or stand alone configuration.

Products in the database

In addition to its vast range of features, one of the most important aspects of SERVOsoft is its extensive database. SERVOsoft allows users to add and edit any component in the database - rotary and linear motors, gear motors, gearboxes, couplings, drives, infeed, bleeder and capacitor modules. The database currently contains over 40,000+ products from many vendors, and continues to grow with frequent updates.

What makes SERVOsoft different?

What makes SERVOsoft different is that it is neutral and unbiased. This allows us to work with all vendors and distributors to include their products in the SERVOsoft database. OEMs and integrators prefer SERVOsoft because it is the only tool that allows them to size all components of a servo system, and also provides them the flexibility to combine products from different vendors.

SERVOsoft's unique position in and of itself is revolutionary in the industry. We are in a position to bring together all parties that are involved in the servo system design process, all with one clear objective - to help engineers make intelligent design decisions. Better performing, efficient and cost effective designs - every time.

If you have any questions about SERVOsoft or servo system design and training, please contact us. We are here to help and answer any questions you may have.