Web-based expert system for motion-component selection debuts, offers free trial

Ability to ignore missing data, when in all other respects a product is a good match, is another feature said to be unique to MTT’s ComponentSelector available at MotionInfo.com.

Need to dramatically streamline your motion product selection tasks? If so, launch of ComponentSelector at MotionInfo.com may be the tool for boosting your productivity. Billed by its developers as “the first motion-intelligent expert search system to provide ranked results for users needing electric motor based products,” ComponentSelector allows users to search for the best motor component match in a unique product database. This is not a “hit-or-miss” approach like other search tools, but a system that provides results ranked by percent-showing how close the result is to the initial search specifications. A free trial is available.

MotionInfo.com is the Web incarnation of Motion Tech Trends (MTT), a leading consulting firm exclusively focused on the electric motor and motion control industries since 1983. ComponentSelector, the web-based expert system, analyzes its growing product database, which currently numbers more than 10,000 products from more than 90 companies worldwide. More products and suppliers are being analyzed and added to the database. ComponentSelector enables users to search the database for the best component match through a set of 62 motor specifications and figures-of-merit as well as 23 component characteristics, explains George Gulalo, president of MTT.

Specs in the database go beyond motors to reflect attached components that may modify motor system performance. These include: integrated motors/drives; motors with integrated gears (gear motors); linear actuators (motor plus rotary-to-linear motion translation device); motors and matching drives; motors with one or more other integral components, such as encoders, resolvers, brakes, fans, liquid cooling, and others.

ComponentSelector has unique features beyond a search engine, says MTT, including the following:

• Intelligent ranking of all matchesthat shows the best match first. The match % shows how well the product meets a user’s needs;

• A“sizing component”that assesses trade-offs to find the one product optimized for all specifications selected;

• Ability for users toguidethe selection by ranking each specification’s importance;

• Figures-of-merit—parametric factors calculated by the system and searchable by the user, which can objectively compare competitive products, different technologies, and quality of design;

• Characteristics used as filtersfocus the database analysis. Placing these characteristics (currently 23) in a database format creates what MTT calls “the first truly digital catalog in the industry;” and

• A“Search Advisor Wizard”to help users intelligently adjust requirements to find a product that isn’t a match but may be close. The Wizard virtually eliminates the case of “no results found” from the intelligent match process.

ComponentSelector—along with MTT’s complementary expert systems, Application Assistant and Design Assistant—is available to members of MotionInfo.com. Compared to standard “search by spec” systems found on supplier Web sites, says Gulalo, this search engine offers users significant time savings in matching and ranking the best product for their needs. Savings are measured in days or weeks, according to Gulalo.

Control Engineeringis offering a free trial use of ComponentSelector. Readers of CE’s Discrete Control Monthly E-newsletter can get a 10-day free-trial membership to MotionInfo.com by signing up and entering the Coupon designation “CE DiscreteControl 1” when indicated. Click on this link to start the trial. Credit-card validation is required, but the card is not charged until the expiration of the free-trial period, and only if the user wishes to continue the membership.

—Frank J. Bartos, Control Engineering, executive editor
fbartos@reedbusiness.com

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