I am looking for a lower cost alternative to expensive vacuum rated brushless motors. I’m wondering if anyone has had any experience using ODrive motors or similar brushless motors in vacuum. Typically stepper motors can be modified to work well in vacuum by replacing lubricants and managing heat. Even if the typical expected lifetime of a motor can be reached, a few hours of operation could justify the cost savings.
Hi!
So, my main concern here is vacuum welding / cold welding in the bearings. I help out with Oresat stuff as a side project, for the reaction wheels we take a standard hobby drone motor, then press out the bearings, and replace them with hybrid ceramic-metal bearings, so there’s never moving metal-metal contact. I definitely think you could do something similar with the motors we stock. Alternatively, it would be interesting to just try replacing the lubricants as you do with stepper motors, and seeing how long they last – I think it would likely depend on the shaft loads, movement profiles, etc. If you really don’t need that much lifetime, you could even use an acetal bearing (McMaster-Carr).
What sort of load will this experience, in terms of load on the shaft?