maxon Inside

maxon and Parvalux

In 2018, Swiss manufacturer maxon motor acquired the UK’s largest manufacturer of geared electric motors, Parvalux. Founded in 1947 by LJ Clark, Parvalux has three manufacturing sites in the UK with more than 200 employees. Major markets include healthcare, leisure, mobility, transport, and industrial applications.

The acquisition allows Irish and UK customers to access an unrivaled range of DC geared motor solutions and technical expertise. maxon and Parvalux share much of the same company ethos, which makes the acquisition an excellent fit. Both companies are family-run businesses with heavy investment in the design of innovative, geared electric motor solutions. maxon and Parvalux sell geared motors at low volume direct from the factory. Close partnerships with OEMs are desirable as this allows for a carefully selected solution that matches the needs of the customer. Some impressive outcomes of this acquisition include the following:

Interchangeable combinations

maxon’s compact, high-power density, brushed and brushless motors can be fitted to the Parvalux range of gearheads, reducing the overall size. This is particularly interesting for many applications such as e-mobility, where size, weight, and cost optimization are critical factors in sound design.

Figure 1. maxon EC-I 52 fitted to a Parvalux worm-spur gear

AC motor range

maxon solely manufactures DC motors and drives. Parvalux offers customers AC electric and geared motors with properties that make them easy to deploy and suit various applications. Parvalux stocks a vast selection of standalone AC motors to suit a range of gearheads (see Figure 3). The AC induction motors, trusted by industries worldwide, feature in applications such as high-power windshield wiper systems, and patient lifts.

Figure 3. Parvalux AC motor

Windshield wiper motor

The Parvalux game-changing, space-conscious Viper3 windshield wiper motor solution (see Figure 4) integrates seamlessly into vehicles across the rail, marine, haulage, and transport sectors.

12V DC, 24V DC and 230V AC wiper motor solutions available
Equipped with multiple mounting options
IP protection rating – IP67
Increasingly popular in the agri-market due to its robustness and simplicity.

Figure 4. Parvalux Viper motor

Multi axis controller MiniMACS6-AMP-4/50/10

maxon’s compact Multi Macs (multi-axis controller system) will be available to customers in early 2021. The controller (see Figure 5) contains power amplifiers for four BLDC motors, or six DC motors or three stepper motors, now with up to 60 V and 10 A per drive. The MiniMACS6 is ideal for X/Y/Z positioning, lab automation devices, robotic systems, AGV systems, etc.

Motion control library with robot kinematics for various robotics applications.
Configurable for brushed and brushless motors up to 540 W continuous power and up to 1.6 kW peak power.
No hidden costs: all motion control features, servo amplifiers, encoder inputs, bus interfaces, and development tools included.
Can be integrated into CANopen and optionally in EtherCAT networks as a fully-featured DS402 multi-axis slave device.