Embedded servo drive boosts speed of smart friction feeders for packaging lines!

An embedded servo drive from Metronix is providing an economic upgrade path for Pfankuch Machinery - one of the world's leading manufacturers of friction feeder systems for inserting leaflets and products into sales packaging. Metronix's smart drive has allowed Pfankuch to increase the speed of its latest friction feeder - the SmartFeeder - by 50% while also doubling the positioning accuracy. This offers a massive gain in productivity for the many users of this type of packaging equipment in markets including pharmaceutical, food and beverage processing, along with extended application versatility.

Pfankuch upgraded the control hardware as part of an exercise to improve the performance of one of its most popular friction feeders in the mid-range sector of this packaging equipment market. The upgrade project targeted the motion control element of the packaging machine, as the basic mechanical structure of the SmartFeeder friction feeder is extremely well proven and reliable.
Pic right Metronix's smart embedded drive mounted inside Pfankuch's advanced new friction feeder

Before the upgrade, the general-purpose friction feeder offered an insertion capability that performs real-time registration and inserts items up to a maximum speed of approximately 100 items/minute, to a position accuracy of nearly 2 mm. The motion control hardware used to achieve this was a brushed DC motor, and a relatively simple drive that was designed and manufactured in-house at Pfankuch.

Pfankuch wanted to improve speed and precision as much as possible, while also changing the motor type to a brushless AC servo - to eliminate maintenance and help speed acceleration times. Crucially, the electronics upgrade had to be achieved without increasing manufacturing costs by more than a small margin, in order to keep the machine price-competitive in its market segment.

The key factor in the upgrade was finding a suitable servo drive. Most servo drives tend to be offered as complete packaged products, and these are far too expensive. However, when the packaging OEM approached Metronix about a drive from its smart DIS-2 range for decentralised applications - which offered an ideal control platform for the single axis in this feeder - Metronix was more than willing to adapt the drive for embedded use to reduce costs and simplify integration. This made the upgrade project feasible. Moreover, Metronix was also willing to provide engineering support to help Pfankuch to implement the changes to the motion control subsystem.

The optimisation exercise involved stripping out all non-essential components from the DIS-2 drive. This included eliminating the casing and expensive system-level connectors. Metronix then added application-specific connection and mounting, and made some modifications to the drive's firmware to optimise performance. Metronix's resulting brushless AC servo drive solution increases Pfankuch's friction feeder insertion speed from 100 to 150 items/minute, while simultaneously doubling positioning resolution to 1 mm. The embedded drive also provides Pfankuch with a modern network expansion interface to provide a platform for future enhancements of the feeder - a CANopen port. The packaging machinery OEM also has the option of adding daughter boards later, which could provide additional fieldbus interface options such as EtherCAT or Profibus.

One of the key ways in which the Metronix drive improves the speed of friction-fed insertion cycle is through local control intelligence embedded in the DIS-2 drive, which both performs the control calculations more rapidly, and employs a more sophisticated positioning algorithm that adjusts drive speed much more often to enhance registration resolution.

Joerg Lastig of Pfankuch comments: "Developing our own state-of-the-art drive was viewed as a complex and costly project for own engineering team, so the major barrier for us was finding a commercial drives specialist that was willing to partner with us and adapt its product for our SmartFeeder machine. Metronix is one of a very small number of suppliers that was willing to help, and provided in-depth engineering support that has helped us to bring the upgraded machine to market on time and budget - which we are confident will set a new price/performance benchmark in its market segment."

"We managed to strip around 20% of the hardware cost from the DIS-2 module to make the drive viable for this embedded application," adds Metronix's Frank Essmann. "The project is a great example of what customised drives can do for OEMs - which in this case we believe increases performance by such a large margin that it will help this packaging machine supplier to increase its market share."

The feeding speed and precision positioning performance of Pfankuch's new SmartFeeder system has now been improved by such a large margin that it even competes with high-speed feeder systems in applications that do not require multi-axis control. This higher performance product category typically includes a powerful dedicated motion controller or PLC and tends to cost at least twice as much as standalone friction feeders. In addition to improving performance, Pfankuch has also made a number of improvements to the feeder to simplify operation and use; one of the most important is a very easy means of changing the friction belt to suit different insertion applications.
At the same time, the new embedded drive minimises the hardware costs of the upgrade for Pfankuch, because Metronix adapted it for the application, providing a stripped-down product suitable for OEM integration that eliminates numerous expensive components.

Function-optimized servo drive reduces bill-of-materials costs for OEMs

Metronix has added a low cost option to its range of intelligent servomotor drives. The new drives - ARS 21xx/23xx SE - offer motion control system builders a platform to boost the performance of machines and automation while substantially decreasing costs.

The new drives deliver a very high level of performance with a peak current capability that is up to twice that of many similar drives on the market - allowing faster acceleration - and offer great applications versatility thanks to universal encoder interfacing. However, they also reduce costs by a significant margin compared with other similar drives from Metronix by stripping out the Safe Torque Off feature.

This provides system builders with a very cost effective drive for applications that do not require advanced functional safety, and where a simpler disabling mechanism based on electrical contactors is all that is required. In numerous other applications, safety disabling features might not be needed at all because the drive is inside a closed system that cannot be accessed during operation. The approach might also be used when machine manufacturers are asked to fit machines with a user's preferred brand of PLC. Due to the complexity and costly commissioning required for some fieldbus-based safety concepts, external safety devices might be preferred. There are a number of machine building companies that have not adopted drive-integrated safety and continue to use external safety devices for various reasons. Or, a machine vendor might choose to offer a proprietary safety concept.

The ARS 21xx/23xx SE family of compact panel/cabinet-mounting drives are available in a choice of six single- or three-phase continuous output power ratings from 0.5 to 6 kVA (with peak output powers from 1 to 12 kVA).

The new drives incorporate two advanced features that are proving very popular with current Metronix customers. The first is an extremely compact design with integrated line and motor filters plus an integrated brake chopper and braking resistor. This is a typical characteristic of all Metronix drives - which are provided ready to use - avoiding the additional costs of external EMC filters and wiring.

The second feature is an increased overcurrent capability of four times the continuous output rating. This compares with the approximately two times overcurrent rating offered by many other servo drive manufacturers. The feature typically allows the speed of moves and the overall throughput of machines to be increased by factors from around 17 to 25 %. Metronix's tests demonstrate that these drives provide overall increases in automation productivity of around 5 to 7% in typical continuous processing applications.

The new drives also feature a universal encoder interfacing capability that allows connection to resolvers, analog/digital incremental encoders, and single/multiturn absolute encoders such as HIPERFACE or EnDat. Standard communications interfaces include the CAN fieldbus - compatible with the DS 402 CANopen device profile. One further feature is an SD Card interface, which can be used to store firmware and operating parameters. This allows the drives to be commissioned very easily, and facilitates an easy change-out by maintenance workers - without any need for a sophisticated software parameterization tool. The drives come in case sizes with widths of 54 or 69 mm (2.1 or 2.7 inches).

The drives' built-in intelligence provides enormous flexibility for system builders. It allows engineers to create highly cost-effective drive-based solutions easily for many common applications requiring one or a few axes, or economic solutions for subsystems in processing equipment performing functions such as labelling or handling. Other common applications include functions such as synchronizing, sorting and a flying saw, and axes that automate auxiliary machinery functions such as set up and guarding. The drives can also be used in more complex multi-axis machinery and plant automation - which can now be designed in a more flexible way thanks to Metronix's expanded drive portfolio.

A powerful and easy to use Windows-based software tool for parameterizing and analyzing the new drives is available. For more complex applications, Metronix offers a motion controller which can be integrated easily.

Metronix has been producing drive technology for industrial machines and automotive applications for over 30 years. Its product range includes smart servo drives with integrated positioning capability, plus motion controllers and accessories that provide cost-effective solutions for multi-axis motion control and automation, and decentralized machine control requirements. Metronix complements this capability with what is probably the most sophisticated and capable custom drive engineering service on the market today. Motion control products designed by Metronix are marketed under its own brand, and in custom forms by a number of well known industrial OEMs. Metronix additionally makes geophysical instruments and customer-specific digital controls for measurement and control applications. The company's design and manufacturing facility is located in Braunschweig, Germany. Metronix is part of the Apex Tool Group, headquartered in Sparks, Maryland, USA. Apex Tool Group has approximately 8,000 employees in over 30 countries.

Custom servo drive business extended

Metronix, has expanded the customisation capability it offers, and launched a new fast-track service.

Metronix is one of the largest designers and manufacturers of custom servo drives. Around 35,000 servo drives a year - over half of Metronix's annual output - are sold under other companies' labels or produced for specific OEM applications. Today, the company is typically working on about 30 adaptation or customization projects at any one time.

The opportunity for custom drives continues to grow strongly, and Metronix has just expanded the size of its R&D department by a third to meet demand. The company has also streamlined the way it handles custom design or private-label branding projects, to offer what it believes is the fastest-turnaround service in the European market.

A team of just two staff are responsible for reviewing new projects with clients and initiating development and manufacturing orders. This efficient arrangement makes Metronix exceptionally agile, allowing it to react very rapidly to customer requests and to 'green-light' new projects within days if required. Using lean manufacturing, the company is able to get new projects into trial production within months of initial customer enquiries, and ramp to volume production quantities in less than a year.

Growth in demand for custom servo drives is increasing strongly. This stems from numerous factors, including the continuing growth in demand for precision servo control, demands for lower power consumption, the increasing desire to reduce physical size or for drives to fit into specific spaces, and from the sheer added value that strong brand identity delivers.

"Many industrial companies are currently realising that they can increase their market share and improve their margins with the aid of better drives and controls," says Jan Koch, CEO of Metronix. "Metronix has the resources and structure to partner with them and accelerate their time to market in such situations."

"Our new investment is targeted at satisfying the strong growth in demand for branding in our segment of the industrial automation marketplace, while also capitalizing on the core strengths of Metronix," adds Jan Koch. "These strengths are a drives business that is large enough to allow us to offer best-in-class manufacturing quality at a very competitive price point; but with a company size that is also small enough to react very quickly."

Metronix, headquartered in northern Germany, has a flexible structure, with a headquarters facility that handles core activities such as engineering and final assembly of drives and controls products, and a number of high quality subcontract partners who manufacture most of the electronic and electro-mechanical component parts and sub-assemblies.

The company's agility and responsiveness is illustrated by a recent survey of its custom product clients which showed that Metronix achieved an on-time delivery score of more than 95%, rated against the deadlines that the customers themselves had asked for - which included many urgent requests for service that fell outside of agreed normal schedules.

Most of the custom requests that Metronix deals with fall into two categories. One is full-custom design, producing application-specific drives to help OEMs optimize performance and/or reduce the bill-of-materials costs of their industrial equipment.

The second main form of request is for 'private label' products - coming from automation suppliers and motion control system builders who typically need a drive to fill a gap in their range. Often, the private label drives that Metronix supplies will also have a number of minor adaptations, such as custom firmware and connectivity, to suit the client's particular target applications and marketplaces. For many of these companies a key target is to get their application solution firmly designed in by OEM customers. By partnering with Metronix, they are able to broaden their product range quickly and competitively, to help differentiate their service from other automation competitors.

In both cases, by selling third-party drive products under their own name, clients typically increase the value of their own brand in terms of enhancing customer recognition, and extending their market reach. Metronix is a complementary partner for such companies, because as a pure drives specialist it does not compete in the higher-level motion control and systems automation engineering parts of the market.

One unusual aspect of Metronix's services in this custom engineering area is its willingness to transfer intellectual property rights to clients. Users can be assigned full rights to manufacture the drives themselves if they wish, typically after a certain initial production figure has been achieved. Metronix also has no minimum batch size for orders, it will even produce quantities of just one item if that is what's needed.

Metronix has been producing motion control technology for industrial machines and automotive applications for over 30 years. Its product range includes smart servo drives with integrated positioning capability, plus motion controllers and accessories that provide cost-effective solutions for multi-axis motion control and automation, and decentralized machine control requirements. A key feature of Metronix's motion products is their rich networking and encoder interfacing capability, which ensures that drives can be integrated easily into virtually any industrial system or machine - even if an OEM has custom PLC or control hardware. This feature is highly valued by many OEMs as it allows them to create and continue developing innovative brands of machine offering unique features. Metronix complements this capability with what is probably the most sophisticated and capable custom drive engineering service on the market today. Motion control products designed by Metronix are marketed under its own brand, and in custom forms by a number of well known industrial OEMs.

• The company additionally makes geophysical instruments and customer-specific digital controls for measurement and control applications. Metronix is part of the Apex Tool Group, headquartered in Sparks, Maryland, USA. The Apex Tool Group has more than 7,600 employees in over 30 countries. 

Servo drives boost machine throughput and lower costs

Metronix has a family of intelligent servomotor drives offering machine builders a platform to boost the performance of automation while also decreasing costs. The new ARS 2000 SE drives combine advanced features including integrated functional safety, universal encoder interfacing and a peak current capability that is up to twice that of many similar drives on the market - allowing much faster acceleration. 
At the same time, the drives reduce costs by providing only the features that a significant majority of system builders want - according to a survey of users.

"The new servo drives integrate a very high-performance position control capability but at a middle-market price," says Metronix's Frank Essmann. "We've managed to reduce costs by up to 15% compared with our existing ranges, by carefully matching functions to the needs of a majority of our OEMs and automation engineer customers."

The ARS 2000 SE family of compact panel/cabinet-mounting drives are available in a choice of six single- or three-phase continuous output power ratings from 0.5 to 6 kVA - the same ratings as two other Metronix drive families with identical form-factors. This compatibility allows the drives to be used as more cost-effective replacements or upgrades in many applications, and ensures that machine builders can choose a drive offering optimized cost-performance.

The new drives incorporate three advanced features that are proving very popular with current Metronix customers. The first is an extremely compact design with integrated line and motor filters plus an integrated brake chopper and braking resistor. This is a typical characteristic of all Metronix drives - which are provided ready to use - avoiding the additional costs of external EMC filters and wiring.

The second feature is an increased overcurrent capability of four times the continuous output rating. This compares with the approximately two times overcurrent rating offered by many other servo drive manufacturers. The feature typically allows the speed of moves and the overall throughput of machines to be increased by factors from around 17 to 25 %. Metronix's tests demonstrate that these drives provide overall increases in automation productivity of around 5 to 7% in typical continuous processing applications.

The third advanced feature is the integration of Safe Torque Off (STO) functional safety. This is provided and certified to Category 4/PLe according to EN 13849-1 - the maximum rating achievable single-axis safety level in this category.

The new drives also feature a universal encoder interfacing capability that allows connection to resolvers, analog/digital incremental encoders, and single/multiturn absolute encoders such as HIPERFACE or EnDat. Standard communications interfaces include the CAN fieldbus - compatible with the DS 402 CANopen device profile. One further feature is an SD Card interface, which can be used to store firmware and operating parameters. This allows the drives to be commissioned very easily, and facilitates an easy change-out by maintenance workers - without any need for a sophisticated software parameterization tool. The drives come in case sizes with widths of 54 or 69 mm (2.1 or 2.7 inches).

Compared with Metronix's existing panel-mounting drives, the only significant features that have been omitted are an expansion capability in the form of two slots that accept plug-in modules - containing additional I/O, fieldbus interfaces, etc - and built-in power factor correction.

The drives' built-in intelligence provides enormous flexibility for system builders. It allows engineers to create highly cost-effective drive-based solutions easily for many common applications requiring one or a few axes, or economic solutions for subsystems in processing equipment performing functions such as labelling or handling. Other common applications include functions such as synchronizing, sorting and a flying saw, and axes that automate auxiliary machinery functions such as set up and guarding. The drives can also be used in more complex multi-axis machinery and plant automation - which can now be designed in a more flexible way thanks to Metronix's expanded drive portfolio.

A powerful and easy to use Windows-based software tool for parameterizing and analyzing the new drives is available. For more complex applications, Metronix offers a motion controller which can be integrated easily.

Metronix has been producing drive technology for industrial machines and automotive applications for over 30 years. Its product range includes smart servo drives with integrated positioning capability, plus motion controllers and accessories that provide cost-effective solutions for multi-axis motion control and automation, and decentralized machine control requirements. Metronix complements this capability with what is probably the most sophisticated and capable custom drive engineering service on the market today. Motion control products designed by Metronix are marketed under its own brand, and in custom forms by a number of well known industrial OEMs.

The company additionally makes geophysical instruments and customer-specific digital controls for measurement and control applications. Metronix is part of the Apex Tool Group, headquartered in Sparks, Maryland, USA. The Apex Tool Group has more than 7,600 employees in over 30 countries. Metronix' design and manufacturing facility is located in Braunschweig, Germany.

Safe decentralised drive system

Metronix has launched safety-equipped versions of its unique decentralised drive solution DIS-2, which can be used as a smart drive or mounted on a servo to create a standalone smart motor. The compact new module provides a versatile and cost-effective drive and control capability for automation engineers and machine builders.

The new Safe Torque Off functionality (PLe category 3 according to ISO 13849-1) provides machinery and automation builders with a highly-affordable means of delivering advanced machine safety features to their customers. This safety feature is also becoming highly valued in the machinery marketplace as it typically increases machine uptime.

Since its launch the DIS-2 has become one of Metronix's most popular products. The rugged decentralized positioning control and drive module has also become a favourite option in this segment of the motion control market as it does not restrict users to particular brands of servo motor, and it can be mounted either directly on the motor or remotely to suit the available space.

Many machine builders like decentralized motion control solutions because they simplify machine design and assembly. For example, by integrating the motor and encoder connections inside the module, DIS-2 reduces the cabling normally required. When used as a decentralized drive it also allows machine builders to reduce the size of automation control cabinets.

DIS-2 drives can be used for speed, torque and positioning control to provide very cost effective solutions to many common processing and packaging requirements. The range of potential applications is very broad and includes simple automation solutions for common manufacturing functions such as synchronizing and sorting, materials handling and conveying systems, robotic unmanned trucks, and axes that automate auxiliary functions such as set up and guarding on machine tools or printing presses. Modular machinery or plant automation - which can be assembled easily to suit specific applications by combining modular elements - are also common applications for this form of decentralized motion control technology.

The DIS-2 can be easily integrated in automation solutions by digital and analog interfaces as well as by exploiting DIS-2's integrated field bus communication interface. To realize multi-axis systems for higher performance and more complex movements such as interpolated motion, CANopen, PROFIBUS and EtherCAT fieldbus networking interfaces are available.

As standard, DIS-2 modules are available with two choices of output ratings: 2A continuous/6A peak with a 230/115 VAC power supply, or 15A continuous/40A peak with a 48 VDC power supply, and come with built-in digital and analog I/O, Safe Torque Off capability, an RS232 port, plus a universal encoder interfacing capability that allows connection to Hall sensors, resolvers, analog/digital incremental encoders, or single/multiturn absolute encoders with HIPERFACE. Users can also select any one of three fieldbus options: CANopen, EtherCAT or PROFIBUS. A powerful Windows-based programming, configuration and diagnostic software tool is available to users to create embedded drive and machine control software for Metronix DIS-2 systems.

The modules are very robust and are protected up to IP67, and can be supplied standalone, or ready-mounted onto the user's choice of brushless synchronous motor. DIS-2 is very compact, measuring 5.6 x 8 x 11.2 cm (2.2 x 3.15 x 4.4 inches). Metronix offers mounting adapter plates for numerous brands of servo motor - making it possible to configure systems for lowest cost or optimum dynamic performance. The footprint of the new safety-equipped DIS-2 is identical to previous modules, making it simple for existing users to upgrade machine designs to take advantage of the new functional safety capability.

Metronix has been producing motion control technology for industrial machines and automotive applications for over 30 years. Its product range includes smart servo drives with integrated positioning capability, plus motion controllers and accessories that provide cost-effective solutions for multi-axis motion control and automation, and decentralized machine control requirements. A key feature of Metronix's motion products is their rich networking and encoder interfacing capability, which ensures that drives can be integrated easily into virtually any industrial system or machine - even if an OEM has custom PLC or control hardware. This feature is highly valued by many OEMs as it allows them to create and continue developing innovative brands of machine offering unique features. Metronix complements this capability with what is probably the most sophisticated and capable custom drive engineering service on the market today. Motion control products designed by Metronix are marketed under its own brand, and in custom forms by a number of well known industrial OEMs.

The company additionally makes geophysical instruments and customer-specific digital controls for measurement and control applications. Metronix is part of the Apex Tool Group, headquartered in Sparks, Maryland, USA. The Apex Tool Group has more than 7,600 employees in over 30 countries. Metronix's design and manufacturing facility is located in Braunschweig, Germany.

Precision motion control

A range of servo drives for precision motion control that can boost performance and slash system building costs in dozens of common industrial automation applications has been launched by Metronix. The new drives offer a peak current capability that is up to twice that of many similar drives on the market, allowing machine builders to dramatically boost acceleration times.

An increased overcurrent capability of four times the continuous output rating is being offered as standard on Metronix' ARS 2000 FS range of Ethernet-compatible servo drives. This compares with the ~2 to 2.5 times overcurrent rating offered by many other servo drive manufacturers.

The capability can be exploited in many common motion control applications to increase the speed of moves and the overall throughput of machines. In tests that compared drives offering a two times overcurrent capability against the new ARS 2000 FS, using a range of loads on rotary and linear servo motor axes, the new drives shortened travel times by factors from around 17 to 25 %. The drives will sustain the overcurrent for half a second, providing considerable flexibility for the system builder.

Depending on the application and the motion profiles used, faster acceleration can have a significant impact on machine cycle times. Point-to-point moves are the most frequently used type of motion on many machines for example. Here, Metronix' ARS 2000 FS can dramatically shorten the times required to accelerate up to full speed when using common motion profiles such as trapezoids or S-curves.

This kind of movement features extensively in many automation applications such as pick and place, parts handling and assembly, labelling and packaging, and sampling and testing. In continuous applications such as these, Metronix' tests demonstrated overall increases in automation productivity of around 5 to 7% by switching to the new drives.

The faster acceleration results from an uprated IGBT power stage, which utilizes power factor correction to boost the internal DC bus voltage level and allow the motor to reach higher top speeds. This adds only a fractional cost to the drive.

Metronix developed the capability to provide a closer match between drive and servo motor capabilities. Many servo motors offer an overcurrent capability that is higher than the typical drive's overcurrent ratio of around two. Ratios from three to four are common, and they can be even higher. By using Metronix drives, machine builders are able to exploit the full continuous and peak torque capabilities of the servo motor. In some applications, it's also anticipated that users will also be able to select a smaller servo drive, cutting a substantial amount from the bill-of-materials - as the drives are usually the most expensive part of the motion control system.

"This capability provides automation builders with a means of reducing machine cycle times for faster payback, and potentially reducing bill-of-materials costs as well," says Metronix' Product Manager, Frank Essmann. "Some simple calculations at the start of a machine design project are all that's needed to evaluate the potential improvements that can be gained."

ARS 2000 FS is a family of compact panel/cabinet-mounting drives available with a choice of six single- or three-phase continuous output power ratings from 0.5 to 6 kVA, in two case sizes with widths of 59 or 69 mm (2.32 or 2.72 inches). The drives all feature a universal encoder interfacing capability that allows connection to resolvers, analog/digital incremental encoders, and single/multiturn absolute encoders such as Hiperface or EnDat. Standard communications interfaces include Ethernet, USB and the CAN fieldbus - compatible with the DS 402 CANopen device profile. The drives also come with a built-in EMC filter, integrated brake chopper and brake resistor. Two expansion bus slots accepting plug-in modules provide a very powerful means of extending a drive's capability for specific applications. Among the options available are a motion control module that can control up to four interpolated axes, digital I/O, additional networking interfaces including EtherCAT or Profibus-DP, and a functional safety module compliant with EN 61800-5-2.

The motion control plug-in adds another powerful mechanism to the cost-saving potential of Metronix' new drives, providing the means to convert an ARS 2000 FS into a very economic intelligent drive. As the module can also control up to four interpolated axes, it can greatly reduce the costs of many common assembly, manufacturing and processing motion control applications such as product synchronization or spacing, registration, labelling, cutting, pick-and-place, and wrapping. Complex applications involving three axes of control, plus a feed or handling axis, can even be accommodated using the economic plug-in module. A powerful Windows-based programming and configuration software tool is available to users to create embedded motion and machine control software for Metronix systems.

Metronix has been producing motion control technology for industrial machines and automotive applications for over 30 years. Its product range includes smart servo drives with integrated positioning capability, plus motion controllers and accessories that provide cost-effective solutions for multi-axis motion control and automation, and decentralized machine control requirements. A key feature of Metronix' motion products is their rich networking and encoder interfacing capability, which ensures that drives can be integrated easily into virtually any industrial system or machine - even if an OEM has custom PLC or control hardware. This feature is highly valued by many OEMs as it allows them to create and continue developing innovative brands of machine offering unique features. Metronix complements this capability with what is probably the most sophisticated and capable custom drive engineering service on the market today. Motion control products designed by Metronix are marketed under its own brand, and in custom forms by a number of well known industrial OEMs.

The company additionally makes geophysical instruments and customer-specific digital controls for measurement and control applications. Metronix is part of the Apex Tool Group, headquartered in Sparks, Maryland, USA. The Apex Tool Group has more than 7,600 employees in over 30 countries. Metronix' design and manufacturing facility is located in Braunschweig, Germany.