ELECTRIC MACHINE

APPLICATIONS

Motivations

Why machines and not motors or generators?

Is only a mode of operation of the same machine.
Why is this topic important?
Many applications :
over 30 machines in house
industry
traction
generation
positioning.

Classes of Applications

Manufacturing
Domestic
Automobiles
Autonomous and remotely controlled
vehicles
Information Technology
Healthcare

Manufacturing
To move materials and parts for processing
and assembly
Milling machines
CNC machines powered by electric or
hydraulic motors.
Robots or manipulators - electric or hydraulic.
A familiar example: pick and place robot
etc.

Domestic
Mostly electric motors
Such devices include :
the coffee grinder,
dishwasher, vacuum cleaner, sewing machine,
video recorder, CD player, camera,
personal computer,
power tools,
electric razors,
etc.

Automobiles
Both electric and hydraulic, e.g.:
steering and suspension systems.
electric windows,
central door locking, sunroof operation,
mirror positioning, etc.

Some top of the range vehicles use in

excess of one hundred motors.

Autonomous and Remotely

Controlled Vehicles
Mostly use electric motors for:
movement of the vehicle and
the steering mechanism.

Some vehicles are remotely controlled for

use in hazardous environments such as:
firefighting and bomb disposal. These may
have alternative drive mechanisms such as
pneumatic, for safety reasons.

Information Technology
Motors are found in abundance in IT
equipment:
Personal computers:
disk drives,
CD drives,
floppy drives etc.

Printers,
Fax machines, etc.

Healthcare
Specialist healthcare equipment:
the dentists drill is commonly pneumatic
although some are being replaced with very
small electric motors.
Electric wheelchairs are now much more
common than they used to be, due in part to
improved battery technology.
Dialysis pumps etc.

The Motion Control

Depending on the application, motion
control can refer to:
simple on-off control,
a sequencing of events,
controlling the speed of a motor,
moving objects from one point to another
precisely constraining the speed,
acceleration, and position of a system
throughout a move.

Drive System
In order to produce the required motion we need
additional circuitry - apart from the motor itself to drive and control the system
They are referred to as power converter circuits
The converter draws electrical energy from the
source (e.g. mains) and supplies it to the motor at
whatever voltage and frequency is necessary to
achieve the required mechanical output

Drives are systems employed for motion control

Require prime movers

Drives that employ electric motors as

prime movers are known as Electrical Drives

ELECTRIC DRIVES

Conventional electric drives

Bulky

Inefficient

inflexible

Modern electric drives (With power electronic converters)

Small

Efficient

Flexible

Modern electric drives

Machine design
Speed sensorless
Machine Theory

Utility interface
Renewable energy
Non-linear control
Real-time control
DSP application
PFC
Speed sensorless
Power electronic converters

Inter-disciplinary

Several research area

Expanding

Components in electric drives

e.g. Single drive - sensorless vector control from Hitachi

Components in electric drives

e.g. Multidrives system from ABB

Components in electric drives

Motors
DC motors - permanent magnet, wound field, brushless
AC motors - induction, synchronous
Applications - cost, environment
Power sources
DC batteries, fuel cell, photovoltaic
AC Single- three- phase utility, wind generator
Power processor
To provide a regulated power supply
Combination of power electronic converters
More efficient
Flexible
Compact
AC-DC DC-DC DC-AC AC-AC

Components in electric drives

Control unit
Complexity depends on performance requirement
analog- noisy, inflexible, ideally has infinite bandwidth.
digital immune to noise, configurable, bandwidth is smaller than
the analog controllers
DSP/microprocessor flexible, lower bandwidth - DSPs perform
faster operation than microprocessors (multiplication in single
cycle), can perform complex estimations

Overview of AC and DC drives

DC motors : Regular maintenance, heavy, expensive, speed limit

Easy control, decouple control of torque and flux
AC motors : Less maintenance, light, less expensive, high speed
Coupling between torque and flux variable
spatial angle between rotor and stator flux

Overview of AC and DC drives

Before semiconductor devices were introduced (<1950)
AC motors for fixed speed applications
DC motors for variable speed applications
After semiconductor devices were introduced (1950s)
Variable frequency sources available AC motors in variable
speed applications
Coupling between flux and torque control
Application limited to medium performance applications
fans, blowers, compressors scalar control
High performance applications dominated by DC motors
tractions, elevators, servos, etc

Overview of AC and DC drives

After vector control drives were introduced (1980s)
AC motors used in high performance applications elevators,
tractions, servos
AC motors favorable than DC motors however control is
complex hence expensive
Cost of microprocessor/semiconductors decreasing predicted
30 years ago AC motors would take over DC motors

Classification of IM drives