Linear Motor

Parker Trilogy Linear Motors
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Linear Motor
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Voice Coil Motors
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Linear Motors
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Electric Valve Actuators
CR-TEC is a supplier of electric actuators and valves for process control and automation.
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Linear Motors Search
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Linear Stepper Motor
Linear stepper motor. Industrial information and services.
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A linear motor is essentially a multi-phase alternating current (AC) electric motor that has had its stator "unrolled" so that instead of producing a torque (rotation) it produces a linear force along its length. The most common mode of operation is as a Lorentz-type actuator, in which the applied force is linearly proportional to the current and the magnetic field (F = qv × B).

Many designs have been put forward for linear motors, falling into two major categories, low-acceleration and high-acceleration linear motors. Low-acceleration linear motors are suitable for maglev trains and other ground-based transportation applications. High-acceleration linear motors are normally quite short, and are designed to accelerate an object up to a very high speed and then release the object. They are usually used for studies of hypervelocity collisions, as weapons, or as mass drivers for spacecraft propulsion. The high-acceleration motors are usually of the linear induction design (LIM) with an active three-phase winding on one side of the air-gap and a passive conductor plate on the other side. The low-acceleration, high speed and high power motors are usually of the linear synchronous design (LSM), with an active winding on one side of the air-gap and an array of alternate-pole magnets on the other side. These magnets can be permanent magnets or energised magnets. The Transrapid Shangai motor is an LSM.

When a linear motor is used to accelerate beams of ions or subatomic particles, it is called a particle accelerator. The design is usually rather different as the particles move close to the speed of light and are usually electrical charge.

Low acceleration trains propel themselves using an aluminium induction strip placed between the rails.

The history of linear electric motors can be traced back at least as far as the 1840s, to the work of Charles Wheatstone at King's College London in London , but Wheatstone's model was too inefficient to be practical. A feasible linear induction motor is described in the US patent 732312 ( 1905 - inventor Alfred Zehden of Frankfurt-am-Main ), for driving trains or lifts. The German engineer Hermann Kemper built a working model in 1935 . In the late 1940s, professor Eric Laithwaite of Imperial College in London developed the first full-size working model. In his design, and in most low-acceleration designs, the force is produced by a moving linear electromagnetic field acting on conductors in the field. Any conductor, be it a loop, a coil or simply a piece of plate metal, that is placed in this field will have eddy currents electromagnetic induction in it thus creating an opposing electromagnetic field. The two opposing fields will repel each other, thus forcing the conductor away from the stator and carrying it along in the direction of the moving magnetic field.

Because of these properties, linear motors are often used in magnetic levitation propulsion, as in the Japanese Linimo magnetic levitation train line near Nagoya. However, linear motors have been used independently of magnetic levitation, as in Bombardier's Bombardier Advanced Rapid Transit systems worldwide and a number of modern Japanese subways, including Tokyo's Toei Oedo Line.

Similar technology is also used in some roller coasters with modifications, but at present is still impractical on street running trams, although this in theory could be done by burying it in a slotted conduit.

Outside of public transportation, vertical linear motors have been proposed as lifting mechanisms in deep minings, and the use of linear motors is growing in motion control applications. They are also often used on sliding doors, such as those of low floor trams such as the Citadis and the Eurotram. Dual axis linear motors also exist. These specialized devices have been used to provide direct X-Y motion for precision laser cutting of cloth and sheet metal, automated Technical drawing, and cable forming.Mostly used linear motors are LIM (Linear Induction Motor), LSM (linear Synchronous Motor). Linear DC motors are not used as it includes more cost and Linear SRM suffers from poor thrust. So for long run in traction LIM mostly preferred and for short run LSM mostly preferred.

From concept to industrial use

In the 1980s British linear motor manufacturer Linear Drives (now Copley Motion Systems) designed the first tubular linear motor by enclosing the permanent magnets in a sealed stainless steel cylinder. The patented permanent magnet arrangement induces a sinusoidal response in the coils that are enclosed in a square profile body. This allowed machine builders to use the new linear motors with standard sinusoidal servo drives commonly used in motion control.

Tubular Linear Motors

Tubular linear motors are more rugged than early flat bed and u-channel linear motors allowing them to be used in dirty industrial environments such as food packaging and machine tools. The tubular construction protects the permanent magnets from the external environment and automatically balances attractive forces so that the motor is easier to integrate into machines. These motors operate at 5- 9 m/s with high acceleration for dymanamic motion control.

A new type of linear motor, called the ServoTube (see Eureka March 2005) has allowed linear motors to be used in industrial environments by integrating the position sensing electronics into the motor body (called a forcer).

High acceleration High-acceleration linear motors have been suggested for a number of uses.They have been considered for use as weapons, since current armor-piercing ammunition tends to consist of small rounds with very high kinetic energy, for which just such motors are suitable. Many amusement park roller coasters now use linear induction motors to propel the train at a high speed, as an alternative to using a lift hill. The United States Navy is also using linear induction motors in the Electromagnetic Aircraft Launch System that will replace traditional steam catapults on future aircraft carriers. They have also been suggested for use in spacecraft propulsion. In this context they are usually called mass drivers. The simplest way to use mass drivers for spacecraft propulsion would be to build a large mass driver that can accelerate cargo up to escape velocity.

High-acceleration linear motors are difficult to design for a number of reasons. They require large amounts of energy in very short periods of time. One rocket launcher design (see ) calls for 300 GJ for each launch in the space of less than a second. Normal electrical generators are not designed for this kind of load, but short-term electrical energy storage methods can be used. Capacitors are bulky and expensive but can supply large amounts of energy quickly. Homopolar generators can be used to convert the kinetic energy of a flywheel into electric energy very rapidly. High-acceleration linear motors also require very strong magnetic fields; in fact, the magnetic fields are often too strong to permit the use of superconductivity. However, with careful design this need not be a major problem.

Two different basic designs have been invented for high-acceleration linear motors: railguns and coilguns.

Rapid transits using linear motor propulsion The following rapid transits use linear motor propulsion.

Scarborough RT line (Toronto, Canada, 1985)
SkyTrain (Vancouver) (Vancouver, Canada, 1986)
AirTrain JFK (New York City , USA, 2003)
Limtrain (Saitama, Japan, 1988 - short-lived demonstration track)
Nagahori Tsurumi-ryokuchi Line (Osaka, Japan, 1990)
Toei Ōedo Line (Tokyo, Japan, 1991)
Kaigan Line (Kobe, Japan, 2001)
Nanakuma Line (Fukuoka, Japan, 2005)
Guangzhou Metro Line 4 (Guangdong Province, China, 2005)
Imazatosuji Line (Osaka, Japan, 2006)
Green Line (Yokohama, Japan, Under construction)
Tōzai Line (Sendai, Japan, Under construction)