[jbay88]

I do motor design and research for a robotics and automation firm. In my experience, steppers often can provide significantly higher torque than a similarly sized BLDC. Their reputation comes from their use in low cost applications, where they are run open-loop and so the load torque must be kept well below what the motor is actually capable of providing, to avoid missing steps. Close the loop with an encoder and stepper performance is more like a geared BLDC. It was a big surprise to me when I first noticed this, because it didn't align with the reputation that stepper motors had.

[Animats]

ShopBots, the big CNC routers, use big steppers with closed loop control, and get considerable power and speed out of a small motor without missing steps. Tormach CNC mills are stepper-driven without feedback; the motor is powerful enough and geared down enough that missing steps isn't a problem.

Steppers do consume full power when not moving, of course, so they're not favored for battery powered systems.

[ycui1986]

The Tormach CNC actually uses a special driver that can detect missing step without feedback.

[Animats]

Shopbot has a closed loop stepper on some models [1], but Tormach says they don't.[2] Tormach just has a big enough stepper and enough gear reduction to avoid missed steps by brute force.

[1] http://www.shopbottools.com/mProducts/ShopBotdesign.htm [2] https://www.tormach.com/technical_questions.html