Since the development of the piston motors more than 30 years ago, no appreciable developments have occurred in the field of air-operated motors with capacities above 10 kW as all applications are principally found in a niche market, and certainly because it does not concern a growth market. However, for EMCÉ, a specialist in the field of customer-specific industrial winches, which is growing strongly worldwide in the field of pneumatic winches, especially in the oil and gas sector, there were a number of motivating reasons to develop and produce these motors, namely:
-product improvements (see explanation);
-cost price reduction (see explanation);
-continuity (see explanation);
-life span;
-maintenance cost reduction;
-reliability.

Product (capacity) improvement
The currently available piston motors do not come up to the specified capacity characteristics and certainly not when they are fitted with the components that are needed to be able to use such a motor in a machine.
Using sound mufflers is unavoidable as air expansion means that sound levels way above 115 dB(A) are normal. Moreover, one must be able to control the airflow with a control tap. These components cause a certain amount of back pressure, which causes appreciable capacity reduction in piston motors. The complexity of the internal airways in the piston motor and the rotating distribution cock in combination with these components means that this back pressure is substantially higher than in gear motors. In various tests, EMCÉ has shown that all these counteractions together result in a power loss of more than 30%.