Electromate: Spring Applied & Power-Off Permanent Magnet Brakes – Engineering Failsafe Motion Control
Most electromagnetic brakes work on a simple logic: apply current, apply braking. Remove current, release braking. For many industrial applications, conveyors, packaging lines, printing machines, this is exactly the right behavior. The brake engages on demand and releases when not needed. But for a significant class of machines, this logic is exactly backwards. Robots, vertical servo axes, medical positioning systems, overhead cranes, mobile equipment, and any machine where an uncontrolled motion event during a power failure could injure a person or destroy a process: these applications require the opposite: braking must be the default state, and power must be used to release the brake, not to apply it.
