Speed Torque and Power Calculations for Motor

Selection
Shekhar Gupta
July 15, 2016
Speed, Torque and Power calculations are required for us to order the right
kind of motors. We will use the calculations done in this documents as reference
while purchasing the motor combinations.

Calculations for Linear Motion

Since our goal is make use of the lead-screw available at the fracture table to
achieve the linear motion, it is necessary to understand the dimension of the lead
screw available to us. The lead screw available to us is a TR20x4 trapezoidal
thread screw with a diameter of 20 mm and Pitch length of 4 mm.

Figure 1: Displacement of patients leg during fracture reduction

1.1

General description

The measurement performed during manual reduction shows that the maximum
amount of linear displacement of the leg was 220 mm. Figure 1 shows the plot
of displacement carried out by the surgeon on Patient 2. From the plot it can
be seen that even though the amount of duration taken by surgeon to perform
the overall reduction is 5.41 minutes, the time taken to apply the pull motion
using the shaft is around 30 seconds and the rest of the reduction is carried out
using fine tuning. The function of the robot is to imitate the behavior of both
pull and fine tune motions.

1.2

Speed Required

To achieve a linear motion of 4 mm the nut needs to be rotated by one complete

rotation. Similarly if we want to do a linear motion of 32 mm/s we will need
the motor speed of 8 rotations per seconds or 480 rpm. With this speed we will
be able to perform the complete linear motion of 220 mm in 6.875 s.

1.3

Torque Required

The amount of input torque required depends on the amount of output linear
force that needs to be produced.
1.3.1

Force Calculation

The total output force is a combination of external force, force due to acceleration and frictional force.
Ft = Fe + Fa + Ff
(1)
where: FT = Total linear force,
Fe = External force
Fa = Force due to acceleration
Ff = Frictional force
In our case the force due to acceleration is really small, Fa 0.3 (F =
ma, 10 0.032) as the acceleration is really small 0.032ms2 and hence we will
neglect it. There is no friction in the load (patients leg) and the friction in the
thread screw will be accounted later while calculating the torque.
1.3.2

Torque Calculation

L
2e
where: FT = Total linear force of 600 N (Tims measurement),
T = FT

L is the pitch of the lead screw, 4 mm in our case

e is the efficiency of the screw (0.9 used for ball screw)
T = 600

0.004
= 0.424
20.9
2

(2)

1.4

Power Calculation

The amount of power required by the motor can be calculated using the formula,
Power = Torque (Nm) Angular velocity (rad/s)

(3)

Speed of 480 Nm in rad/s is 480 0.105 = 50.4 rad/s

Hence,
Power =0.424 50.4
=21.37 W
However this is the Power required before accounting the efficiency of the timing
pulley, gear and motor. After taking the efficiency of timing pulley, gear and
motor to be 0.9, 0.75 and 0.75 respectively and a safety factor of 1.2, the power
required by the motor will be,
21.37 1.2
0.9 0.75 0.75
=50.65 W

Power =

1.5

Force and Torque Requirement with Belt and Pulley

System

While using the belt transmission system it is possible to use different sizes of
pulley to achieve a reduction ratio between them. In doing so it is possible to
decrease the amount of torque required by the motor and increase the speed of
the motor proportionally. This will further help us in choosing the right kind of
motor combination and optimum price as we will have more options to choose
from. Table 1 shows the minimum force and torque requirement on the motorgear combination to perform the linear motion while using belt transmission
system.
Reduction Ratio
1
2
3

Minimum Torque (Nm)

0.424
0.212
0.141

Minimum Speed (rpm)

480
960
1440

Table 1: Torque and Speed requirement on the motor combination for Linear
Actuation with various reduction ratios of the pulley

Calculations for Rotary Motion

Goal is to use the rotating part of the Fracture table and a motor to achieve
rotary motion required during fracture reduction.

2.1

General Description

During the fracture reduction procedure it was measured that the maximum
amount of torque that was applied was 17.4 Nm and the maximum angle of
rotation of the leg was 60 .
3

Figure 2: Angle of rotation (in degrees) of the patients leg during fracture
reduction

2.2

Speed Required

Figure 2 shows the angle of rotation (in degrees) of patients leg during fracture
reduction performed by the surgeon. It can be seen that the surgeon performs
this motion on an average around 10 s. Our goal is to achieve the required
amount of rotation as fast as possible. To achieve a rotation of 60 in 5 s the
rotation speed required is 2 s rotation. However it was decided to dimension the
motor such that it can perform the rotary motion in 2.5 s at 4 rpm.

2.3

Torque Required

The torque requirements for performing the fracture reduction was obtained
from the measurement data of Tim Huiskens. During his measurement it was
found that a peak torque of 17.4 Nm was applied during reduction. Hence we
will use 18 Nm as the torque requirement for the motor.

2.4

Power Calculation

Equation 3 can be used to calculate the power. However we need the speed in
rad/s
4 rpm in rad/s is
= 4 0.105 = 0.42 rad/s

Hence Power required will be

Power =Torque Speed
=18 Nm 0.42 rad/s = 7.56 W
This is the power required to achieve the rotary motion before accounting
for the efficiency in pulley, gear and Motor. Taking efficiency of pulley, gear and
Motor to be 0.9, 0.75 and 0.75 respectively, Power required by the motor will
become,
7.56
0.9 0.75 0.75
=14.93 W

Power =

However this calculation still does not account for the large amount friction
present in the rotation mechanism of the fracture table part. To account for
this we will use a safety factor of 3. So the new required power becomes,
Power =14.93 3
=44.79 W

2.5

Force and Torque Requirement with Belt and Pulley

System

Table 2 shows the minimum force and torque requirement on the motor-gear
combination to perform the linear motion using belt transmission system.
Reduction Ratio
1
2
3

Minimum Torque (Nm)

18
9
4.5

Minimum Speed (rpm)

4
8
12

Table 2: Torque and Speed requirement on the motor combination for Rotation
with various reduction ratios of the pulley system