[ger21]

Stepper motors should last "almost forever", as the only wear parts are the bearings, and steppers spin relatively slowly.
You really just need to do the math to see what works best for your application.

[sploo]

Stepper motors should last "almost forever", as the only wear parts are the bearings, and steppers spin relatively slowly.
You really just need to do the math to see what works best for your application.

Thanks Gerry. The question is more in my ignorance of steppers (I've only ever used machines with servos). If you can get the required output torque and speed (with appropriate gearing) and keep the stepper speed to, say, 500rpm max, is that better than gearing it to use the full "rev range" of the stepper? I keep hearing about issues of pushing steppers to higher rpms, so I'm trying to understand if 0-500rpm is preferable to 0-1000rpm (assuming that 0-500rpm is considered adequate for the application).