Frequently Asked Questions

The word Kanban is a Japanese term used and created by Toyota Corporation. It is a just-in-time agreement to offer a customer safety stock and work in process based on rolling forecasts provided by the customer. With this agreement Shinano Kenshi Corporation can provide safety stock of finished goods in our warehouse. Also our factory can provide safety stock of raw material or components.

Shinano Kenshi Corporation has been completely compliant since 2005.

Please contact your Authorized Representative or Regional Manager.

Please contact your Authorized Representative or Regional Manager for any issues. For any current open order issues please contact your Customer Service Manager.

First you need to establish terms with Shinano Kenshi Corporation. If no credit is establish, we accept cash in advance, COD, and credit card (Visa / MasterCard only) orders. Upon approval of credit our standard net terms are Net 30 Days.

Yes, we will.

This program allows the customer to withdraw stocked parts either placed inside a customer’s own warehouse or a third party warehouse. Shinano Kenshi Corporation would be responsible to replenish the finished goods inside our warehouse with the consignment program as soon as parts are taken by the customer. Part usage is determined by counting the inventory at weekly or monthly intervals. Shinano Kenshi Corporation would then invoice the customer for the parts consumed over that period of time.

Currently we are unable to provide open purchase order information online for our customers. However, we are looking at implementing this feature in the future.

Yes, please contact your Customer Service Representative.

Please visit our Purchasing section of our website for detailed information. We have distributors covering the entire continental United States.

Lead time is generally 100 days ARO, contact us for all standard motors which are generally in-stock and can ship the same day upon order. Production quantities run around 110 days from either our Japan or China facilities.

We offer competitive turn around on all our custom sample orders. However, each sample ranges in the level of customization and complexity. Therefore our lead time varies based on product and customer demands. Please contact a Regional Sale Manager for more information.

They are made in Nagano, Japan and Dong Guan Province, China.

Our facility has been in operation for over 15 years and it is part of the Shinano Kenshi Corporation which is a privately held company from Nagano, Japan, with approximately 3,500 employees. This is a world class manufacturing facility spread out over 16 acres and is 500,000 square feet in size.

Shinano Kenshi Corporation is ISO 9000-9002 certified in both our Japan and China locations. This ISO certification also includes the ISO14000 and the new TS16949 certification.

Yes, please contact your customer service representative or sales department get a copy of ISO certificates.

This can be done by contacting our sales team at Shinano Kenshi Corporation. However, please note some specification sheets are proprietary with the customer. Please contact us for details.

Higher supply voltage will result in higher speed capabilities; more current will result in more torque.

From 1 watt to 150 watts.

Most are variable speed with ranges from 400 to 3000 rpm while some models can run as high as 45,000 rpm.

Micro stepping serves three purposes. First, it allows a stepping motor to stop and hold a position between the full or half-step positions. Second, it largely eliminates the jerky character of low speed stepping motor operation and the noise at intermediate speeds. Third, it reduces problems with resonance. Although some micro stepping controllers offer hundreds of intermediate positions between steps, it is worth noting that micro stepping does not generally offer great precision, both because of linearity problems and because of the effects of static friction.

Use of elastometric motor mounts or elastometric couplings between motor and load can drain energy out of the resonant system, preventing energy from accumulating to the extent that it allows the motor rotor to escape from control. This can help control resonance in your application.

Also viscous damping can be used. Here, the damping will not only draw energy out of the resonant modes of the system, but it will also subtract from the total torque available at higher speeds. Magnetic eddy current damping is equivalent to viscous damping for these purposes.

1. Driving condition: Voltage, speed, dynamic torque/inertia, current, and duty cycle.
2. Size constraint: Ambient temp and temp range, life of the motor.

For steppers
1. Driving method: Constant current or constant voltage.
2. Driving the motor: Unipolar or bipolar.

For BLDC
1. Driving the motor: Constant speed or variable speed.

We offer a large array of custom service to our customers. We offer value added services which are completely done on location and not outsourced to other vendors. We handle value added products like gears, pulleys, drive belts, connector termination, mounting plates, custom shaft configurations, custom pin out locations, alignment angle of pin out location, and much more. We can also provide custom drive electronics and for certain industries and markets, contract manufacturing capabilities. We pride ourselves on the level of customization we can offer to our customers. Please contact us to learn more.

The limiting factor is the PC Board which is rated for Class A. However all key internal components (windings, etc) are UL listed as Class B. Data can be provided upon request. Shinano Kenshi Corporation has the capability to supply high temperature rated motors over NEMA 17 and 23 frame sizes.

Yes, once it is approved by the customer, official approval documents will be provided and will readfile the proprietary part number.

You can generally tell the two apart by simply feeling them when no power is applied. Permanent magnet motors tend to "cog" as you twist the rotor with your fingers, while variable reluctance motors almost spin freely (although they may cog slightly because of residual magnetization in the rotor). You can also distinguish between the two varieties with an ohmmeter. Variable reluctance motors usually have three (sometimes four) windings, with a common return, while permanent magnet motors usually have two independent windings, with or without center taps. Center-tapped windings are used in unipolar permanent magnet motors

Stepping motors come in a wide range of angular resolution. The coarsest motors typically turn 90 degrees per step, while high resolution permanent magnet motors are commonly able to handle 1.8 or even 0.72 degrees per step. With an appropriate controller, most permanent magnet and hybrid motors can be run in half-steps, and some controllers can handle smaller fractional steps or microsteps. Hybrid motors are indistinguishable from permanent magnet motors from the controller's point of view.

For both permanent magnet and variable reluctance stepping motors, if just one winding of the motor is energized, the rotor (under no load) will snap to a fixed angle and then hold that angle until the torque exceeds the holding torque of the motor, at which point, the rotor will turn, trying to hold at each successive equilibrium point.

The best way to demagnetize something is to expose it to a high frequency-high amplitude magnetic field. This can be accomplished by running the control system to spin the rotor at high speed when the rotor is actually stalled, or spinning the rotor at high speed against a control system trying to hold the rotor in a fixed position. These will both expose the rotor to a high amplitude high-frequency field. If such operating conditions are common, particularly if the motor is run near the curie temperature of the permanent magnets, demagnetization is a serious risk and the field strengths (and expected torques) should be reduced accordingly!

In a permanent magnet or hybrid stepping motor, the magnetic field of the motor rotor changes with changes in shaft angle. The result of this is that turning the motor rotor induces an AC voltage in each motor winding. This is referred to as the counter EMF because the voltage induced in each motor winding is always in phase with and counter to the ideal waveform required to turn the motor in the same direction. Both the frequency and amplitude of the counter EMF increase with rotor speed, and therefore, counter EMF contributes to the decline in torque with increased stepping rate.

Bifilar windings on a stepping motor are applied to the same rotor and stator geometry as a bipolar motor, but instead of winding each coil in the stator with a single wire, two wires are wound in parallel with each other. As a result, the motor has eight wires and not four.

The heat given off by the motor windings is due to simple resistive losses, eddy current losses, and hysteresis losses. If this heat is not conducted away from the motor adequately, the motor windings will overheat. The simplest failure which can be created is insulation breakdown, but it can also heat a permanent magnet rotor to above its curie temperature, the temperature at which permanent magnets lose their magnetization. This is a particular risk with many modern high strength magnetic alloys.

As a standard motor it does not. However, we can develop a mating wire harness to match your needs (length, end termination in your chosen connector, tubed wires, tie wrapped, etc.)

Yes, part numbers change and a new one will be issued for each custom product and customer.

This depends on many factors such as the complexity of custom work and the overall volume a customer might expect for a given product. Please contact your Regional Manager or Authorized Representative for more details as these vary on a case-by-case basis.

MTTF is defined as “Mean Time To Failure.” The point MTTF is the total device hours divided by the number of failures. The failure rate is defined as the reciprocal of the MTTF. Where no failures occurred during testing, the point MTTF and failure rate have been calculated assuming one failure.

MTBF is defined as “Mean Time Between Failures”. It is the average time a system will operate without a failure. Failure may be the result of one or many faults. The MTBF is a commonly quoted reliability in engineering.

Not typically for OEM applications. We can recommend the best drive methodology based on a review of your application.

Yes. Any shipments from our location shipped via UPS can be tracked through our website. These shipments are shipped by UPS ground. For all other custom shipments please contact us directly.

Yes. Any shipments from our location in California can be tracked through our website. These shipments are shipped by UPS ground. For all other custom shipments please contact us directly.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any shipment issues. However, in many cases, it is more efficient and effective for the customer to contact their own freight forwarder company. This is due to the proximity to their location and the direct repoire they have with their chosen freight company.

Ex-F is normally referred when we discuss lead-time meaning exiting from the factory. If EX-F is mentioned it means transit time is from our factory has been readified.

This term applies when a customer likes to have its own forwarder take delivery of the parts from our factory. When this term is used in our quotation it means we incur the cost of shipping from our factory to the customer’s forwarder.

Free on board. This pricing term indicates that the cost of the goods, including all transportation and insurance costs from the manufacturer to the port of departure, as well as the costs of loading the vessel are readfiled in the quoted price. This term only applies for the shipments via sea or inland waterway transport.

Cost insurance freight. This pricing term indicates that the cost of goods, insurance and freight are readfiled in the quoted price. Duty is a rate which is determined by the United States Customs agency fees and is by the country of origin and the product specifications.

Please contact your customer service representative for these types of answers. We are in direct contact with all of our suppliers overseas as well as all third party freight forwarders. As this is an area of our expertise and service, SKC will do a great job providing this information.

We can assure the highest levels of reliability and accuracy with our shipping and logistics. Our company has won numerous awards for our high level of quality, cost, and delivery (QCD) to our customers.