When it comes to getting things when you want them, there probably hasn't been better time in history, and it is getting even better. We order home goods and groceries online and expect to have them in 1-2 days, and soon it will be hours. All of this take new kinds of technology and new kinds of equipment.

Some of this equipment, like automated warehousing systems that pick items and groceries, focus heavily on system cost vs throughput. For these systems, weight is a big concern. The more mass that you need to move, the heavier the equipment gets (motor and brakes and other components). More mass means more inertia, so when faster throughput is required, the power required increases exponentially. So, as designers, we try to lighten our load to make everything more efficient and optimized.

Mobile robotics and battery powered vehicles & machines in general are often advantaged by lightening the load. For example, less load on a small automated food delivery cart means that they battery can last longer, equipment productivity goes up, and return on investment goes up.

Ogura MCNB-T and RNB-T are two examples of power off brakes with optimized designs to reduce size and weight. While Ogura offers special designs to meet nearly any application requirements, the standard static torque range of these series is 0.24 lb-ft (0.32 Nm) to 36.9 lb-ft (50Nm). These brake models are also very thin, intended to meet today's additional design challenges of limited space and lower power.

Benefits of using Ogura lightweight brakes:

• Less demand on other components
• Greater ability to run faster and increase throughput
• Lower load on batteries
• Technical advantage over competition
• Better success upon product launch
• Long life
• High quality

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