Re: Do stepper motors get old?

>Stepper motor will become demagnetized, and lose torque over a
>period of time.
>So I would recommend purchasing a new stepper motor if yours is
>over 10 yrs old.
>You might expect that answer from a guy who sells stepper motors, >but is this really true? I know magnets lose strength over time, but >do stepper motors need changing every ten years?

Dear Bryan,
this may happen on a small scale, hobby users usually don´t notice it, they don´t run their machines that hard. You can wreck a motor by taking it apart, at least newer designs. That will for sure demagnetize the motor. You may damage it by permanently overdriving it with high current and therefore, overheating it.
Now to the big but: it pays to take a closer look at new motors anyhow. Recently, a friend dropped by with a surplus stepper from work. Joking it would be able to rip my small machine apart, we put it on the z-axis of my machine, just because the bolt pattern and the shaft was the same and attached the cables.
I was able to crank up the top speed approximately by 50% without any other optimization and I know there´s still far more headroom to tinker.
These new motors pack an incredible amount of torque for their size at the same amperage and voltage as older motors. Just go to a page that sells motors and compare torque with old designs. Resonance and max. steps/sec stepped up a notch, too.
The bad thing is with this new high power motor I got to think what steps the drive technology made in this few years.
Maybe I´ll retire the old motors and the old drivers and put them on a wood router like the zoltar and step up to a more modern drive soon. Where 42V/2Amps and halfstep was the norm for a small driver back then, 80Volts/4Amps and microstep is possible at the same cost now.
In case you say "yeah, his motors were junk and now he got quality stuff" the old motors were Vexta PHs, back then it they were in the upper end of the reasonable priced class of motors. The new one I can´t say because it´s relabeled by my friends company. My guess is it is a Vexta, too. Guess I have to wait for more surplus.

Cheers,
Johann