A reference design for brushless actuators. A US-made stator and machined housing, with matched magnets, in the box. Bring your own drivers and gearing.
The first step toward a billion American actuators, built by many companies, not one.
That's the number we're building toward. Not a billion from us. A billion from all of us: motor makers, controls companies, gearbox shops, machinists, and the robot builders who put them to work.
Every robot is a stack of joints. An arm carries six or seven. A humanoid carries dozens. Drones, gimbals, exoskeletons, factory cells and vehicles add more. If robots become ordinary machines, actuators get counted in the billions, and every one of them is a motor somebody has to make.
"Compliant" is the hard part. It means a part a program can put on a bill of materials that has to say where things came from: made somewhere you can name, from pieces you can trace. Today, the motor is where most of those bills of materials fall apart. We aren't there yet. This is a direction, not a certification, and we intend to earn it one supply relationship at a time.
No single company gets to a billion. An ecosystem can. Here's how we think it adds up.
No one company builds a billion actuators. An ecosystem can.
The hard-to-source half of a brushless actuator, made in America: the silicon-steel stator and the machined frame that holds it true, with magnets matched to both. Nothing else to source. The half where your design lives stays yours.
Fig. 01 — Exploded view, reference actuator
Every actuator team already has opinions about its driver and its ratio. That's where the IP lives. Bring your own, or source one through our partners.
What teams can't easily get is a domestic stator and a frame that holds it concentric to the rotor. That's the part of the motor that comes from overseas today, and it's the part we put in the box, with magnets matched to it so there's nothing else to source.
Fig. 02 — Who supplies what
Each frame is built around a production lamination from the American Stator catalog. Drawn to one scale, so you can see the difference.
Every frame ships as a documented design you can build on: defined interfaces for the parts you bring, and drawings for the parts we make.
Build the motor. Skip the import.
The kit stops where your expertise starts. Everything dashed in our drawings is somebody's business to build, and we would rather that somebody be you than us.
We aren't announcing partners. We're looking for them. If you make one of these well, or want to, talk to us early, while the boundaries are still being drawn.
Fig. 03 — Who we want to build with
Compete hard on performance, quality, service and judgment. Agree on just enough that your customers can use each other's work.
A robotics company should be able to build a remarkable robot without becoming a motor company, a controls company, and a gearbox company along the way. That ought to be an ordinary expectation.
There is a business in making a better part. There is also a business in making other people's products easier to build. That is an industry worth building.
Kits are coming soon. Tell us what you're building, or what you make, and we'll write when kits ship and when there's something to build together.
Made in America.
Finished by you.