Schrittmotoren ermöglichen einen präzisen Positionierbetrieb, sie kommen also zum Einsatz, wenn eine hohe Genauigkeit bei anspruchsvollen Positionieraufgaben benötigt wird. Sie bestehen aus einem feststehenden Stator und einem darin drehenden Rotor, der durch ein Drehmoment angetrieben wird, das durch unterschiedlich ausgerichtete Magnetfelder im Stator und Rotor entsteht. Dabei dreht sich der Rotor immer so, dass ein größtmöglicher magnetischer Fluss entsteht. Schrittmotoren finden primär Anwendung in der Fabrikautomation, werden aber auch immer mehr im Maschinen- und Anlagenbau eingesetzt.
Stepper motors are characterised by a very high torque at a low rotational speed. This enables the application to be both started quickly and – thanks to the high holding torque – to be stopped easily too. The direction of rotation can also be changed quickly and at any time. Other important advantages of stepper motors are the high accuracy they offer during operation and the easy monitoring of the rotor position. In addition, stepper motors do not have brushes, which contributes significantly to the high mechanical resistance of the application.
Basically, there are three different types of stepper motors: the reluctance stepper motor, the permanent magnet stepper motor and the hybrid stepper motor. The latter combines the properties of reluctance and permanent magnet stepper motors and is thus the most efficient of the three versions. Hybrid stepper motors have a stator with stator poles with multiple teeth and a rotor consisting of up to 200 teeth that can move at step angles of 1.8° each. Hybrid stepper motors have a high static and dynamic torque as well as a very high stepping speed and are therefore used in numerous applications, including PC drives and printers. The main application areas for hybrid stepper motors in industry are machine tools and handling machines.