Pancake motors are wide and flat, exhibit quick acceleration and deceleration, and have a high pole pair count. They can be either brushed or brushless. These motors are often favored for their precision and rapid start-stop capabilities. They’re also useful when the axial space is limited and application needs a short motor.
To be clear, there is no definitive point of axial length to radius ratio where a motor is classified as a pancake motor versus a regular servo motor; the definition is somewhat subjective. The technology is still the same, and they’re still run the same way by servo drives, the shape and inertial properties just differ as they do in all motors. But the term is pretty widely accepted as a motor that’s flat like a pancake.
Benefits
- Pancake motors have very fast response times and are excellent for velocity mode applications
ADVANCED Motion Controls' Capabilities
- All servo drives have no issues operating with pancake motors