Alva Industries delivers advanced SlimTorq™ motor solutions designed to address size, weight, and power (SWaP) optimization requirements in modern aerospace and defense gimbal systems.
These systems, typically deployed on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), and other autonomous platforms, must meet strict constraints while maintaining high precision and dynamic performance. Alva Industries focuses on improving SWaP through its FiberPrinted™ slotless torque motor technology, enabling more compact, lighter, and efficient designs.
SWaP optimization in gimbal systems enhances portability, energy efficiency, reliability, cost-effectiveness, integration, and stabilization performance. Achieving these benefits requires balancing SWaP goals with dynamic performance, rotational inertia, cost, and manufacturability. Other key considerations for gimbal design include high-bandwidth torque control, precision with minimal cogging and torque ripple, high acceleration, and thermal stability.
In conventional designs, slotted motors use a stator with laminated steel teeth and winding slots to achieve high magnetic coupling and torque density. While offering robustness and high torque, these motors generate cogging torque and torque ripple, making them less suited for precision gimbal applications.
Slotless motors, with a smooth cylindrical stator bore and self-supporting windings, eliminate cogging torque for exceptionally smooth, precise rotation with minimal vibration. Although typically less powerful due to lower copper fill factors, slotless motors excel in high-precision applications.
Alva Industries’ SlimTorq™ motors combine the strengths of both slotted and slotless designs while avoiding their drawbacks. Manufactured using the company’s patented FiberPrinting™ process, SlimTorq™ achieves up to a 60% copper fill factor, improving torque density, compactness, and efficiency.
Non-skewed windings ensure full utilization of generative force, while a Halbach-array rotor increases magnetic flux by 10–20%. The result is a lightweight, high-performance motor architecture that delivers precision and high torque density in the most compact form.
Key SWaP-optimizing features of SlimTorq™ include:
- Significant size and weight reduction, with some of the thinnest and lightest motors available
- Cogging-free operation and extremely low torque ripple (<1%) for precise control
- High efficiency with low losses and strong peak torque performance
- Low inductance and direct drive capability for high bandwidth and zero backlash
- Robust construction and rapid customization through FiberPrinting™ technology
By integrating FiberPrinted™ slotless motors, gimbal systems gain ultra-compact, lightweight, efficient, and cogging-free torque solutions, enabling the next generation of high-performance stabilization systems.
