Servo drives for washdown and hygienic environments

Kollmorgen Corporation has expanded the application range of its Kollmorgen Essentials Servo Drive Drive (KED) to include hygienic and washdown environments. By pairing KED with AKMA aluminum washdown motors and AKMH stainless-steel hygienic servo motors, machine builders can now achieve high-performance motion in demanding washdown applications — without the cost typically associated with washdown and hygienic servo systems.

Kollmorgen Essentials servo drives support multiple industrial Ethernet protocols out of the box, including EtherCAT, EtherNet/IP and PROFINET, providing broad connectivity while reducing system and inventory complexity.

Absolute feedback for washdown applications

To further extend this value, AKMA and AKMH motors are now available with SFD-M (Smart Feedback Device, Multi-Turn), enabling Kollmorgen Essentials servo drives to support absolute multi-turn positioning in hygienic and washdown.

SFD-M delivers high-resolution absolute feedback without the cost and maintenance associated with battery-backed encoders. Its energy harvesting technology stores position information through power cycles, while embedded motor data enables automatic drive configuration and faster commissioning with all Kollmorgen servo drives, including KED, AKD and AKD2G.

AKMA motors feature anodised aluminium housings with IP69K protection for medium to heavy-washdown applications. AKMH motors provide stainless steel construction with IP69K sealing for daily washdown environments involving high pressure, elevated temperatures and caustic cleaning agents.