Development of best servo motor for leather sewing machine

[CowBoyOUTLAW]

On 7/4/2025 at 10:18 AM, CowBoyOUTLAW said:

We are developing an excellent servo motor for leather sewing machine.   Our current version now has these features/functions:
1. Low speed: minimum speed 50 RPM only.  The slowest and highest/HP motor available on the market.
2. High torque:  an awesome 8.6 Nm of torque.  Far greater than any other low speed motor.
3. Soft Start: make the machine far more manageable.   Allows user to set a few seconds of slow speed operation before rising to highest set speed.
4. “Jog-Dial”  -- this allows for the turning of a dial attached to machine to set needle positioning wherever wanted.   Found on high end machines like Adler 969.
5. Speed Controller: a couple of soft touch arrows allow you to adjust sewing speed in a second right from control box.
6. Half Stitch -- allows needle bar to make either up or down position simply by pressing a button.
7. Needle UP/DOWN positioner -- allows needle to stop in either up or down position when letting off gas.

Are there any other features leatherworkers would like to see in a motor?

 

[CowBoyOUTLAW]

4 minutes ago, dikman said:

In which case you've come to the wrong place to promote your servo as very few on here buy those motors (other than as used units that come with a second-hand machine). You can't compete with what most of us buy, generic Made-in-China servos off ebay (or from a dealer, selling those same generic servos).

I am not trying to promote servo motors here. We want to make the best servo motors for the leather industry, and leatherworker.net is the club of world's top leather players...I need your experience

[dikman]

Mmmm, ok, this is primarily a hobbyist forum and our needs/wants will be different to those of a large manufacturer of leather goods. WE want controllable slow speed and torque out of a servo but to a manufacturer slow speed = lost time so I doubt they would be interested. Your potential market is harness makers, saddlers and those who make goods using heavy leather but it is not exactly a huge market, in fact I would say it's a very specialised market, with probably very limited sales possibilities. The obvious market is to convince those Chinese manufacturers of leather stitching machines to use your motors with their machines but that's probably unlikely as they will be dictated by cost and the cheaper generic motors work well enough for them. You're not appealing to the hobby market as your motors are in the upper price bracket, so I'm not sure where that leaves you.

To get back to your original post, so far it's not looking good for your "options", other than a good variable speed control. If your Swedish/Italian people need them then it shows that their needs are different to ours as hobbyists. So who are you going to cater for? 

[dikman]

Just did some checking, your current servo is available here (Australia) for Au$500 plus shipping, generic servos start at Au$ 140 shipped. Bit of a no-brainer really, even at $200 it leaves me a lot of money for other things.

[CowBoyOUTLAW]

3 hours ago, dikman said:

Mmmm, ok, this is primarily a hobbyist forum and our needs/wants will be different to those of a large manufacturer of leather goods. WE want controllable slow speed and torque out of a servo but to a manufacturer slow speed = lost time so I doubt they would be interested. Your potential market is harness makers, saddlers and those who make goods using heavy leather but it is not exactly a huge market, in fact I would say it's a very specialised market, with probably very limited sales possibilities. The obvious market is to convince those Chinese manufacturers of leather stitching machines to use your motors with their machines but that's probably unlikely as they will be dictated by cost and the cheaper generic motors work well enough for them. You're not appealing to the hobby market as your motors are in the upper price bracket, so I'm not sure where that leaves you.

To get back to your original post, so far it's not looking good for your "options", other than a good variable speed control. If your Swedish/Italian people need them then it shows that their needs are different to ours as hobbyists. So who are you going to cater for? 

Thanks, to manufacturers in China, India, Indonesia and other Asian countries, we use Kinedyne HM-750L low cost motor, because they need efficiency, instead of "low speed", compare to other Chinese motor, the advantage is high durability. 
Yes Kinedyne HM-750SH low speed high torque servo motor is ideal for leather sewing machine.  
At least, the motor can greatly improve the performance of our leather sewing machine. 

[CowBoyOUTLAW]

2 hours ago, dikman said:

Just did some checking, your current servo is available here (Australia) for Au$500 plus shipping, generic servos start at Au$ 140 shipped. Bit of a no-brainer really, even at $200 it leaves me a lot of money for other things.

Only for your information, before we sell our industrial sewing machine with cheap servo motor arround Au$ 140, too many troubles, that's why we start to make servo motor. In Italy and Sweden, they use Effka motor before, now use Kinedyne, saving a lot, instead of spending more..

[nejcek74]

I learnt sewing with modern servo motor with needle positioner. I am buying them in Europe from a big reseller, Strima, they are around 300 euros. They start at 100 rpm minimumspeed I think, 750 we. 

Thanks to needle positioner I don't miss lower speeds. I do needle up, needle down and I can go step by step when I want. And the needle is always in the right position (locked stitch or open tensioner etc) so working is easy and precise. I don't need and don't want a speed reducer under the table. 

A jog dial would be useful to limit upper speed which I need to do on the controller. I also miss more robust needle positioner with better and easier fixing to different types of machines.

For me a middle priced servos with good documentation and support would be interesting. Efkas prices are too steep, the cheapest Chinese imports are undocumented and have often strange quirks that are difficult to solve 

[kgg]

1 hour ago, nejcek74 said:

For me a middle priced servos with good documentation and support would be interesting.

Like @dikman I did a similar search for servo motors and I find that I can get a Brushless for about $150 CAD or a Brushed for about $200 CAD.

As I don't need or want a Brushless servo motor or any of the additional features the documentation needed for a Brushed servo motor is so basic.

5 easy steps: 

1. how to install the servo motor and mechanical linkages,

2. install belt to the machine or belts if you have a speed reducer,

3. set speed by turning the speed dial,

4. plug it in to a wall outlet,

5. turn power switch on and hit the "go" pedal.

If at some point a Brushed servo motor fails you typically have to replace the servo motors fuse and brushes. If a Brushless servo motor fails chances are you replace the complete servo motor setup.

kgg

 

[Cumberland Highpower]

9 hours ago, CowBoyOUTLAW said:

I am not trying to promote servo motors here. We want to make the best servo motors for the leather industry, and leatherworker.net is the club of world's top leather players...I need your experience

It looks to me that you've just drummed up a thread on this forum to make sales of what you already market, Right? 

You're asking for input on "designing" a new servo, yet debate every time someone mentions a point or suggestion contrary to what you're already marketing/selling.  For example when a member suggests options for supply voltages, you just jump to market your "Kenedyne" motor as it's available in both.  You should have said, that's a great idea, we'll incorporate that into the worlds best heavy servo motor that we're working on, maybe we'll make it a dual voltage, plug and play unit!

If you're looking to design a servo for leatherworkers to use on heavy stitchers, follow our collective advice and be open minded.

If you want to add all these features including a ridiculous "jog dial"  you're not really going to get anywhere.   ISM in the Republic of China already has the best servo going with all those "other" features we don't really need.   The ISM SV-71 650w servo is around $300. I bought mine from College Sewing machine for 189GBP ($258). Those units are light years ahead of any of the lower cost PRC made units and not all that inferior to a Ho Hsing unit.

Maybe I'm a little too skeptical, I don't know.  It could be something innocent like a mistake in translation from English to Chinese, or maybe a cultural communication mismatch?   

The members here buy Servos for 2 reasons.  1)  Better low speed control  2) Needle Positioning  

Those are the only major advantages they have over a clutch motor and yes, clutch motors are very much still a thing.   They're nearly indestructible, basic, easy to adjust, and power machines along all day, every day.  I actually like the faint hum they make, you know the machine is on.   Yes, they do consume a little more power, but unless you have a shop floor with 100-+ machines running, it's not an issue.   If you factor in maintenance/repair/replacement of burned units as well as electricity consumption over a 10 year span, servos could and probably do, carry a higher cost.

I have 21 clutch motors operating on my shop floor, the oldest date on one is 1967, the newest is dated 1993.  (Most all are made in Taiwan/ROC back when that wasn't really a great thing quality wise).  I seriously doubt any brushless servo would last 30-50 years?

Edited July 5 by Cumberland Highpower

[Cumberland Highpower]

3 hours ago, kgg said:

Like @dikman I did a similar search for servo motors and I find that I can get a Brushless for about $150 CAD or a Brushed for about $200 CAD.

As I don't need or want a Brushless servo motor or any of the additional features the documentation needed for a Brushed servo motor is so basic.

5 easy steps: 

1. how to install the servo motor and mechanical linkages,

2. install belt to the machine or belts if you have a speed reducer,

3. set speed by turning the speed dial,

4. plug it in to a wall outlet,

5. turn power switch on and hit the "go" pedal.

If at some point a Brushed servo motor fails you typically have to replace the servo motors fuse and brushes. If a Brushless servo motor fails chances are you replace the complete servo motor setup.

kgg

 

I'd probably be willing to pay $300-500 for  really good quality, high torque  brushed servo that was a simple unit like that. Something bullet proof, easy to use and strong as an ox.   Doesn't really have to be restricted to a "middle-priced" unit necessarily.

Edited July 5 by Cumberland Highpower