Engineering Video Center
Technology

Electric Motors

Electric Motors Design and Operation

"DC MOTORS AND GENERATORS... DESIGN, APPLICATION, AND OPERATION OF BASIC, SERIES, SHUNT, AND COMPOUND WOUND TYPE DC GENERATORS AND MOTORS."

US Army training film TF9-3106

Public domain film from the National Archives, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied. The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).

A DC motor is an electric motor that runs on direct current (DC) electricity... Two important performance parameters of DC motors are the Motor constants, Kv and Km Brush The brushed DC electric motor generates torque directly from DC power supplied to the motor by using internal commutation, stationary magnets (permanent or electromagnets), and rotating electrical magnets. Like all electric motors or generators, torque is produced by the principle of Lorentz force, which states that any current-carrying conductor placed within an external magnetic field experiences a torque or force known as Lorentz force. Advantages of a brushed DC motor include low initial cost, high reliability, and simple control of motor speed. Disadvantages are high maintenance and low life-span for high intensity uses... Brushless Brushless DC motors use a rotating permanent magnet or soft magnetic core in the rotor, and stationary electrical magnets on the motor housing. A motor controller converts DC to AC. This design is simpler than that of brushed motors because it eliminates the complication of transferring power from outside the motor to the spinning rotor... Uncommutated Other types of DC motors require no commutation. Homopolar motor -- A homopolar motor has a magnetic field along the axis of rotation and an electric current that at some point is not parallel to the magnetic field. The name homopolar refers to the absence of polarity change. Homopolar motors necessarily have a single-turn coil, which limits them to very low voltages.

This has restricted the practical application of this type of motor. Ball bearing motor -- A ball bearing motor is an unusual electric motor that consists of two ball bearing-type bearings, with the inner races mounted on a common conductive shaft, and the outer races connected to a high current, low voltage power supply. An alternative construction fits the outer races inside a metal tube, while the inner races are mounted on a shaft with a non-conductive section (e.g. two sleeves on an insulating rod). This method has the advantage that the tube will act as a flywheel. The direction of rotation is determined by the initial spin which is usually required to get it going. Connection types There are three types of connections used for DC electric motors: series, shunt and compound. These types of connections configure how the motor's field and armature windings are connected together. The type of connection is significant because it determines the characteristics of the motor and is selected for speed/torque requirements of the load. Series connection A series DC motor connects the armature and field windings in series with a common D.C. power source. This motor has poor speed regulation since its speed varies approximately inversely to load. However, a series DC motor has very high starting torque and is commonly used for starting high inertia loads, such as trains, elevators or hoists... Series motors called "universal motors" can be used on alternating current..

Shunt connection A shunt DC motor connects the armature and field windings in parallel or shunt with a common D.C. power source. This type of motor has good speed regulation even as the load varies, but does not have as high of starting torque as a series DC motor. It is typically used for industrial, adjustable speed applications, such as machine tools, winding/unwinding machines and tensioners. Compound connection A compound DC motor connects the armature and fields windings in a shunt and a series combination to give it characteristics of both a shunt and a series DC motor...