IN Brief:
- Dust and vapour risks remain a design constraint in dry foods, powders, and grain handling.
- New servo motor options target Zone 2 gas and Zone 22 dust environments with global certification.
- Greater motor choice at lower hazard ratings could reduce overspecification in machine builds.
Kollmorgen has introduced the AKME Series of hazardous location servo motors, certified to ATEX and IECEx for use in environments requiring Zone 2 and Zone 22 ratings. Built on the company’s AKM servo motor platform, the new line is aimed at machine builders seeking compact servo performance in areas where ignitable gases or combustible dusts may be present.
For food processing and adjacent bulk handling, the use cases are familiar: powder transfer, dry blending, milling, and grain conveyance, where fine particulates can accumulate and elevate ignition risk if equipment selection and enclosure design are not aligned with site zoning. In these applications, motion systems can become a procurement bottleneck, with projects pushed towards larger, higher-rated motors when the available catalogue does not match the zone classification.
Kollmorgen said AKME motors are available in IEC frame sizes 2–7 and can be used with drives powered by 48 Vdc, 75 Vdc, 120 Vac, 240 Vac, or 400 Vac, with speeds up to 5,000 rpm. The series supports multiple feedback options, including resolver, SFD-M, ComCoder, EnDat, Hiperface, and BiSS B, and is positioned alongside the company’s AKD, AKD2G, and Kollmorgen Essentials servo drives.
Chris Cooper, Global Director, Product Management, Kollmorgen, said, “With AKME servo motors, engineers have greater flexibility than ever before to fit a more cost-effective, HazLoc motor to their Zone 2 and Zone 22 machine applications rather than forcing a larger, overspecified Zone 0 or Zone 1 motor into their design.”
ATEX certification covers equipment intended for potentially explosive atmospheres under European requirements, while IECEx provides a global certification framework aligned to IEC standards. For OEMs shipping machines across regions, having both certifications in a single motor family can reduce engineering rework, simplify technical files, and shorten the approval path when equipment is deployed into similarly classified areas internationally.
Kollmorgen already supplies other motors for hazardous environments, but the introduction of a servo platform at Zone 2 and Zone 22 is aimed at broadening the design envelope for automation-heavy machinery, where precision motion and compact footprints are often in tension with certification constraints.
