Inventor Ted Lin is a personage of innovation and expertise in the demanding field of dc motor technology. His 25th patent is a testament to his lasting contributions to motion control engineering. A half-century ago, Lin began his journey with a B.S. in Physics from Tsing Hua University in Taiwan and an M.S. in Physics from Northern Illinois University. His multidisciplinary technical skills encompass magnetic field design, mechanical structures, and electronic control systems. This broad knowledge base has resulted in dozens of patents as well as 14 scholarly publications.
In 1984, Ted Lin was christened as the Father of New Step Motor Technology by Warner Electric. He played a pivotal role in the design of stepmotors for early disc-drive applications. In 1991, he founded Lin Engineering to produce the first 0.9° stepmotor. This was a game-changer in medical equipment, instrumentation, and other fields demanding high precision.
Combining technical prowess with business acumen, Lin has authored five crucial booklets — including the Core Ideologies and Leadership Handbook that transformed Lin Engineering from a family-owned entity into a systematically organized company. The efforts were rewarded with the successful acquisition of Lin Engineering in 2015, where Lin continues to serve as corporate vice president of new stepmotor development.
Design World recently spoke with Ted Lin about his lifetime of achievements and predictions for future innovations in motion control engineering. Here’s what he had to say.
What inspired you to become an innovator?
Lin: I grew up in a motor manufacturing family in Taiwan and became familiar with induction motors when I was 18 years old. In fact, I saw motors every day … and every day became increasingly interested in motor design.
What do you consider your most significant contributions to the motion industry?
Lin: The first job I had after graduating from Northern Illinois University in 1974 was as an R&D engineer at McGraw-Edison Company’s power-tool division. There I created many new product ideas, including a cordless handheld vacuum cleaner. Now these vacuums are common in the marketplace.
I spent time designing and building a prototype to demonstrate this brand-new concept and presented it to the company president. However, my idea was rejected because it would require expensive tooling and cost about $9 per vacuum to manufacture — and so needed to be sold for about $27 retail. That was deemed too expensive for a home appliance. Three years later, the company Black and Decker introduced the same type of product branded as the Dust Buster … retailing for $29.99. We’d made a big mistake, and I never made big money on the idea. I had other ideas, and some were low-cost options, but marketing kept rejecting them [laughs] saying they were very ugly, and no one would buy these products. So, I began learning about marketing. Even today, few understand what marketing means; it’s a very abstract word. I learned when an engineer designs something, that engineer must really understand the market and customer needs. This helped me design things that were right for the marketplace.
Later I worked at Dumore Corporation — a private company in Wisconsin. They’re a traditional ac and dc-motor manufacturing company. I worked very closely with the motor shop, test lab, sales teams, customers, and design engineers — learning all the specs of the motor and gear products. I implemented their design in a computer program using an Apple II computer — at one point in a motor-gear design solving four equations with five unknowns which cannot be done by hand. That made me somewhat famous in the motor industry.
In 1981, I was hired as a principal engineer at Warner Electric. They tasked me with leading their efforts in stepmotor development and told me nobody there knew stepmotors. I asked around, and it was true; nobody knew stepmotors very well. So over three months, I worked to become the company’s stepmotor expert … and then began teaching and sharing my knowledge with the team. Three years later, I’d developed new lucrative products for the company … and the company named me The Father of New Step Motor Technology.
Was it believed stepmotors were useful for a certain market?
Lin: Yes. Few companies at that time made good stepmotors. The stepmotors I helped them develop were especially useful in the disc-drive market, in which Warner Electric was the sole supplier for three years. The design was very difficult to copy.
Lin’s inventions have left an indelible mark on the industry, and the achievement of Lin’s 25th patent is evidence of his persistent innovation in dc motor technology. Lin’s U.S. Patent 11742736 issued August 29, 2023 is for a unique 3.6° stepper design targeted at high-speed high-torque applications.
Would you tell us more about your 25th patent?
Lin: My most recent patent is for a unique design for a 3.6° stepper motor. Currently, 1.8° stepmotors dominate the marketplace because traditional 3.6° stepmotors have low efficiency. So, it’s been years since 3.6° motors have seen much use … and today, nobody even considers 3.6° motors for new designs. But I reconsidered them because moving by 3.6° steps is twice as fast as moving by 1.8° steps. Traditional designs are pretty bad, but I’ve found a way to overcome the efficiency challenges. My new 3.6° stepmotor delivers high speed at high efficiency. Future work aims to make these motors even quieter and more efficient.
High-speed stepmotors can pair with gearboxes … and this in turn overcomes the motors’ design limitations to yield high-torque and high-accuracy output.
Stepmotors normally run at low speed, and dc motors run at high speed. To get stepmotors to run at high speed, certain design limitations must be overcome. Then the stepmotor can pair with a gearbox — just like most dc-motor applications that use gear reductions to output lower speed.
In fact, I’d say my most significant contributions to the industry have been high-speed low-noise motors. These motors also need little heat dissipation — something of high interest to the industry.
Tell us about your expertise in magnetic field design.
Lin: Magnetic field designs 40 years ago weren’t very accurate. Today they are — but their technical development can be complicated and time consuming. Our engineering team in Shanghai uses advanced software for their work, and running analyses can take hours. I didn’t use such tools in mine; instead, I developed and to this day still use my ability to clearly visualize magnetic flux. It’s as if I can see magnetic fields with my eyes. Even before I’m given the flux analysis for a motor, I know what’s good, what’s bad, and what can be improved.
In 2005, Ted Lin published the Mean Value Control System describing an approach to improve product quality without incurring higher manufacturing costs. Coupled with his proprietary 4.5 Sigma System, these strategies have fortified the business through cyclical industry ups and downs to ensure sustained growth and stability.
Any more specifics about your expertise in optimizing mechanical structures?
Lin: At McGraw-Edison Company, I did a lot of design analysis including computer modeling for vibration mitigation. For one centrifuge project, we used test results to redesign a mechanical structure and avoid operation at a resonance-exciting speed — plus design the motor’s speed away from the assembly’s resonant speed to solve a lot of problems for the customer. For many years in other projects, I also used a kind of structural analysis called function structure analysis to reconstruct modern mechanical designs and lower manufacturing costs. One of my bosses at the time taught me how to do such analyses, and I adapted the approach to many projects.
In our motor business, using information from sales, we’ve conducted many successful root-cause analyses, generated corrective action reports, and taken recommended actions.
One remarkable chapter in Lin’s career was in 1994 when he designed a specialized motor that no other manufacturer could build for U.S. Air Force B2 stealth bombers — a feat considered unattainable by any other factory at the time. Moreover, in an era where American motor manufacturing had taken a backseat to Japanese innovation, Lin broke the mold by establishing and successfully operating a motor factory in Silicon Valley, the most expensive tech hub in the U.S.
How was the motor on the Air Force B2 stealth bomber used?
Lin: In data-recording systems based on hard-disc drives, motors move rewrite heads. At the time, the Air Force couldn’t find anyone to build a model for theirs. The design was very unique and complicated, and new specifications had to be followed. We developed a motor for the application, but my company wasn’t qualified to supply the motors we designed. So, an Air Force quality team came to our facilities to help me establish a quality-control system and become ISO certified so we could supply the motors.
Thoughts on how engineering has evolved over the last 40 years?
Lin: Today we don’t associate growth with learning the basics, which is a problem. Since I was a physics major in school, I’ve dedicated myself to constantly learning and building the technical library in my brain; it’s part of my philosophy. But for most engineers today, the technical libraries are on the Internet and they think, “I can look up anything I want when I want.” But when today’s engineers encounter a design challenge not described online, it can be very difficult for them to address it. There’s truly no way to go online and search for insights. If the technical library is stored in your brain, you can easily understand issues and see solutions. Rather than go back to learn the basics, sometimes engineers become frustrated with their bad luck in design efforts and being unable to overcome hurdles. In fact, we all fail, and it’s not an attractive sight — but every failure becomes the way to the light.
To use an metaphor: Everyone goes through life with their vision and understanding shielded by a piece of glass. Through effective learning processes, we can clean the glass little by little every day to more clearly comprehend things. Then the glass becomes clearer and clearer … and we begin to see what most people cannot see. That’s why I always say an engineer can even see the magnetic flux in a motor if his or her glass is perfectly clean. Then the complicated becomes simple.
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced in your career?
Lin: My biggest challenge is training people to be exceptionally qualified at work. The solution is to constantly teach and coach; even today I still do that. I regularly give talks and hold seminars for our engineering group.
For more information on Lin Engineering, visit linengineering.com. Following is a list of Ted Lin’s scholarly publications.
Comparison of Techniques for Folding and Unfolding Mossbauer Spectra for Data Analysis (Mossbauer Effect Methodology, Vol. 9, Gruverman, editor, 1974)
Commutator Lead breakage and Optimum Lead Angle Design (International Coil Winding Conf., 1981)
Graphical Methods to Determine the Maximum Static Holding torque of Step Motors (Incremental Motion Control Systems and Devices, Vol. 12, Kuo, editor, 1983)
Inductance Consideration in High-Speed Performance of Step Motors (IMCSD, Vol. 13, Kuo, editor, 1984)
Multiple-Pole Step Motor (IMCSD, Vol. 14, Kuo, editor, 1985)
A Practical Insight of Fourth-Harmonic on Hybrid Step Motor (IMCSD, Vol. 16, Kuo, editor, 1987)
Automated Inductance Tester for Step and DC Brushless Motors (IMCSD, Vol. 20, Kuo, editor, 1991)
High Resolution High accuracy 0.45° Step Motor (IMCSD, Vol. 21, Kuo, editor, 1992)
High Resolution Motor for Microstepping Control (26th International Symposium on Industrial Robots, Oct. 1995, Singapore)
Unique Designs in Step Motors (IMCSD, Vol. 21, Kuo, editor, 1997)
Shortcuts to Step Motor Selection (Motion Control Expo, Detroit, 1999)
Understand Stepper Parameters Before Making Measurements (Test & Measurement World, Nov. 1999)
Special Winding Design for Hybrid Step Motor (IMCSD, Vol. 29, Kuo/Lieu, editor, 2000)
Mean Value Control System (Measurement Science Conference — Applied Analytical Metrology, March 2010)
The 4.5 Sigma Way — published on Amazon in 2022.
You may also like:
Filed Under: Motors • stepper
