Automate 2026: Yaskawa Drives Motor and Control Innovation

Variable frequency and servo motor drives are the center point of most energy efficiency and industrial operation conversations. Every pump, fan, compressor, axis, robot, and conveyor driven by an electric motor represents a potential operational cost saving, or worse, a failure point. Yaskawa's drives and motion division showcased a catalog of devices that are fine-tuned for exceptional control, longevity, and reliability, which all work together to create a perfect motor drive environment.

The company focused its display on three areas: the motors themselves, the drives that enable operation, and the control system that coordinates the motion of the entire machine.

Servo Motor Series

Yaskawa motors, servo drives, and iCube controllers at the booth.

The motor lineup on display represented a majority of the smaller machines, the ones appropriate for a trade show scale. From the ultra-compact SGM7M brushless motors, measuring only about 2 inches in length, up to the SGM7P and G series in the tens of kW power range, designed for larger loads, but still providing the same encoder precision.

Servo Drives and VFDs

Two different types of drives exist for different purposes.

The more basic drives for general-purpose 3-phase induction motors are called VFDs, and they have been popular across industry for many decades. The GA500 series of drives provides control for most motors across various power ranges. Some models are meant for basic, standalone control, while others provide options for network communication. The GA501 provides standard Ethernet/IP with power ranges from 1/6 to 40 HP. The more advanced GA800 series provides greater networking support, diagnostics, and commissioning capabilities.

Yaskawa servo drives.

The second kind of drive is servopacks, designed for servo motors with built-in encoder feedback. These motion controllers are configured for both 1-phase and 3-phase inputs for use with the sigma-7 servo motors.

Motion and Machine Controllers

Yaskawa iCube and iC9226 machine controllers.

Combining motion control and overall machine control into one device has been a recent focus of several manufacturers. Embedding graphical and text programming functions of the IEC 61131 standard directly into the motion controller can take a load off of the main controller.

Yaskawa takes the strategy a step further by also adding slice I/O modules right alongside the motion controller, creating a more familiar PLC look and feel, while extending the programming options with Python, C#, and C++ for even more advanced functions.

More Drives for More Motion

While we may be concerned with the power use and efficiency of motors, industry is absolutely not moving away from them. They have been, and will remain, the backbone of automation. The future simply holds new ways to control the motors and decentralize the systems so that they can become safer, more effective, and easier to maintain over the long expected life of the equipment.