Low-Profile Permanent Magnet Motor for High Torque in Tight Spaces
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional electric motors face issues such as wear on brushes and commutators, high weight and power consumption, cogging, overheating, and complex electromagnetic complications, which limit their efficiency and ubiquity, especially in applications requiring high torque and low weight like unmanned underwater vehicles and aerospace systems.
Innovation Solution
A motor design utilizing repulsion between permanent magnets, eliminating the need for electromagnets, with a stator and rotor configuration that allows for low profile, high torque, and reduced maintenance, featuring a bed of linearly actuated permanent magnets and a spinnable structure with adjustable radius and configuration to optimize magnetic forces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If electromagnets with coil windings are used to produce driving magnetic forces, then precise control and timing of magnetic forces is achieved, but weight increases and power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes the coil windings and electromagnets from the motor system, retaining only the permanent magnets. This eliminates the heavy copper coils while preserving the essential magnetic field generation function through permanent magnets alone, thus reducing weight while maintaining operational control through electronic commutation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the electromagnetic coil system with a permanent magnet-based system. Instead of using electrical coils to generate magnetic fields, the invention uses permanently magnetized materials that provide continuous magnetic fields, eliminating the need for continuous electrical power to maintain the magnetic field and reducing overall system weight.
2Ease of operation
If electromagnets with coil windings are used to produce driving magnetic forces, then precise control and timing of magnetic forces is achieved, but power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the energy-consuming coil windings from the system, keeping only the permanent magnets that require no electrical power to maintain their magnetic fields. Power is only consumed during brief commutation periods, dramatically reducing overall power consumption while maintaining precise control capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The permanent magnets serve themselves by maintaining their magnetic fields without requiring continuous electrical power input. The magnets inherently provide the necessary magnetic forces without external energy input, eliminating the continuous power consumption associated with electromagnets while retaining control through electronic switching.
3Force
If conventional motor designs are used, then sufficient torque is generated, but the motor height increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from a conventional radial magnetic field configuration to an axial magnetic field configuration using permanent magnets positioned on the stator and rotor surfaces. This dimensional change allows the magnetic forces to act axially rather than radially, enabling sufficient torque generation within a reduced height envelope while maintaining the necessary force output.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution provides reduced weight, maintenance, and increased torque capabilities, enabling a low-profile motor suitable for constrained spaces with high torque requirements, improving efficiency and reducing operational challenges.
Implementation Method 1
The fundamental principles of electric motors have been understood since the mid-18th century... In motors which use coil windings as the primary driving force (almost all motors on the market), creatively designed armatures can be integrated to aid with efficient operation by orienting the coils to produce more effective magnetic repulsive forces.
Implementation Method 2
The working principle of the invention (the motor), as generally described in previous patent application PCT/US2021/045457, primarily involves the repulsion between permanent magnets to drive the motor.
Data Source
AI summary
A high torque, dimensionally flexible motor is powered by actuated magnets on a stator interacting with permanent magnets on a rotor. The stator actuated magnets move towards and away from the rotor magnets, creating repulsive and/or attractive forces to spin the rotor and its shaft. Spinning and reciprocating configurations include rotor over stator, stator over rotor, rotor inside stator, and stator inside rotor. Such a motor provides high torque and has preferential dimensions and shapes for space constrained applications such as those requiring small height and large radius, or a long thin rectangular footprint. A rotor can be made to spin both clockwise and counter-clockwise, at different times, in the same configuration.